All's well in the World
by Roxydesigns
Summary: Rory is still with Dean, but not for long. Jess comes by, and something happens that's either completely wrong, or really good. Lit. I hate summary's
1. Chapter 1

Title: All's well in the world (don't ask me why, it's all I could come up with)

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Just another one of those crazy Rory+Jess fans!

This story takes places somewhere in the beginning of season 3, where Rory is still with Dean, and Jess is with Shane. I hope you like it, and please R&R :D, this is my first GG story on my own, so be gentle...

**Chapter One**

"So the number is on the counter. Be sure not to eat too much take-out from Al's, but go to Luke's for some social contact every once in a while." Lorelai says while packing the last few things she needs for the business conference she was forced to go to.

"Will do." Rory nods.

"Not too much book-reading, stay away from strange men with candy luring you into dark alleys, and go to Luke's if you need any help with anything. And of course if you're suddenly struck by a horrible disease and I just _have_ to leave the conference it won't be an entire disaster." Lorelai says with a smile.

Rory laughs. "I'll be sure to remember that."

They walk to the front door. Lorelai sighs. "Well, I'd better go."

"Yup."

"Try not to burn the house down. Oh, and no parties that last the entire weekend. A one-nighter is just fine though."

"Go!"

"Okay." They hug once more before she finally walks outside and steps into the car. "Miss you already!" She yells through the window.

"Me too!" Rory chuckles, and she gets back inside. She stands in the living room, figuring out what to do. Then she decides to, as always, read a book. So she sits down and grabs the book lying on the coffee-table.

* * *

Rory enters Luke's in her school uniform, sits down at the counter, and puts her yellow backpack on the ground.

"Hey Rory." Luke says.

"Hey." She replies.  
"What can I get you besides coffee?" He asks, taking his writing block and pen ready.

"Uhm, I guess I'll have some pancakes." She says.

Jess comes down, looking kinda sleepy.

"Jess, coffee." Luke tells him, while he points at Rory's spot, and goes to the kitchen

Jess grabs the coffeepot and a cup, and pours Rory a cup of coffee. "Hey." He says while he glances at her.

"Hi." She says with a light smile, her heart skipping a beat as she looks into his eyes.

"Where's your mom? She's usually here with you for her daily load of caffeine." He says.

"She had to go to some kind of hotel-inn meeting, and she's gone 'til Sunday."

Jess nods. "So you got the house all for yourself this weekend. I'm sure you and Dean would love that." He says sarcastically, and with a bitter undertone.

Rory is about to reply, when Luke comes to her with her order. "Thanks." She says.

Jess glares at Rory. "I gotta get ready for school." He says, and disappears upstairs. She watches him leave, as she pricks in her pancakes.

* * *

"So you got the house for yourself for the entire weekend?" Lane asks unbelieving, they're sitting on the floor of her room, listening to Sympathy for the Devil by the Rolling Stones. Rory nods.

"Wow! I wish mama would ever go away for longer period of time than 2 hours."

"Yeah, speaking of which, where is she?" Rory asks.

"Oh, right now she's at Korean cooking class, and right after that she goes grocery shopping and tries out some of the recipes she's learned."

They stay silent for a while, nodding their heads to the music.

"So this must mean a lot of Dean-action this weekend huh?" Lane then asks.

"Eh…sure, but mostly I think I'm just gonna catch up on my studying, and do some laundry…you know, stuff I can't do when my mom's home."

Lane chuckles. "You do know how to party, don't you?"

With a grin Rory playfully slaps Lane on the arm. "Well what would _you_ do?"

"Oh Ror, don't get me all worked up about that subject! You know I get all excited over the idea of no Mrs. Kim!"

"I'm sorry." Rory says with a teasing smile.

* * *

That night Rory is on the couch reading. She gets up and goes to the kitchen where she grabs the coffeepot and puts it under the tap for water. She swirls the knob open, but suddenly the tap falls off, and water squirts all over, making Rory soaked. Rory tries with one hand to keep the water from coming out, and with the other she tries to put the tap back on. "Damn it!" She exclaims when she fails, and she runs to the phone and dials a number. 

The doorbell rings and Rory opens. "Jess." She says surprised.

"The diner was swamped, so Luke asked me to go." Jess says with a shrug.

"Oh." She says somewhat flushed, and steps back to let him in.

"So what's the problem, Luke mentioned something about water wading up to your knees and needing to build a raft?" Jess asks, and notices her wet hair and clothes, and he feels more attracted to her than ever.

Rory leads him into the kitchen, which by now has turned into a water-ballet. Jess puts the toolbox he was carrying on the table, and takes some tools out. He goes to the sink, puts the tap on it's place, gives it a few screws, and it's fixed. Then he closes the knob to keep the water from running. "Wow, that seemed so easy." Rory says, feeling kinda stupid. Jess nods, and they look at each other for a while, both with water dripping out their hair.

"So…why isn't Dean here doing this for you?" Jess asks.

"Oh he's visiting his grandmother in Chicago, and he doesn't come back 'til tomorrow."

"Aw, isn't that cute, bagboy is seeing granny, where he'll probably get lots of kisses and cookies with milk!" Jess says mockingly.

"Well aren't you supposed to be sucking faces with Shane, instead of running errands for your uncle?" Rory bites back.

Jess sighs frustrated. "Okay, this was real great again, I say something about Dean, you make a 'snappy' comeback about Shane, and that's how it goes every time. But can we just cut the crap here Rory?" Jess snaps.

Rory looks confused.

"Coz, frankly, I don't think you want to be with Dean that much any more these days, and that's because I think you like me, and I'm not just saying this to flatter myself, but I know for a fact that the only reason I'm with Shane is to make you jealous. Or am I completely wrong in this, because if so, feel free to step in!"

Rory doesn't say anything, and she crosses her arms, not knowing where this is going.

"Okay, fine, don't say anything… You want me to spell it out for you? I'm in love with you Rory, there you go, I've said it!"

Rory looks thrown by this. She looks at Jess waiting for a response, and instead of telling him how she's in love with him too, how she has been just about since they met, she just skips that part and kisses him, first a little insecure, but when he returns the kiss it becomes more passionate.

When Rory steps away she smiles.

"Huh." Jess says. "See now, ain't this much better than fighting?"

Rory takes his hand and nods. Then she remember something. "Oh there's something I wanted to show you." She says, and pulls him into her room. She searches through her bookcase, and pulls out two thick books, and hands them to Jess. "I've been wanting to lend these to you ever since I was in Washington, but I never really got the chance coz…you know."

Jess looks at the covers. "Thanks." He says. "These are great."

"You read them already?" Rory asks slightly disappointed.

"No I just heard of 'em." He says, and he puts the books on Rory's desk. He takes her head between his hands, and kisses her. She places her arms on his back as the kiss deepens. She slowly starts leading him to the bed, and they sit down, still kissing. Her hands slowly reach down to his army-colored shirt, and starts pulling it up. Jess pulls his head away from Rory with a surprised look on his face. "Ror, you sure y –" He is cut off by Rory kissing him, thus way assuring him of her being sure. Jess leans a bit forward, softly pushing Rory so they lie down with him on top of her. Jess's hands reach down for her belt, and without even thinking about hesitating she just lets him undo it.

* * *

Then next morning when Rory starts to wake up she feels someone is holding her. She opens her eyes. Jess is holding her. Naked. In her bed. She closes her eyes again and smiles. 

He'd been awake for a while now. Just lying there, holding her. He still couldn't believe this happened. Yet there was something he'd been wondering ever since she started to take his shirt off. He feels her waking up, and opens his eyes, looking directly into her bright blue ones. "Hey." He says softly.

She smiles. "Hey." She returns, and he softly kisses her lips.

"How are you today?" He asks.

"Couldn't be better." She answers with a bright smile.

The doorbell rings. Rory tilts her head. "Who's here? It's really early!...what time is it?" She says. She looks on her alarm-clock and sees it's 10:30. "Oh my god!" She cries, jumping out of bed and quickly slipping into her pajama's.

"What?" Jess asks, sitting up.

"Dean! H-He was coming back this morning and I was supposed to be at the bus station waiting for him, which I wasn't, and now he's here!"

"Huh." Is all Jess says.

"Get up, get dressed, hide, do something!" Rory says panicking.

"Why?" Jess asks with a smirk.

"Oh, do you _want_ Dean to kill you?"

Jess sighs and gets out of bed, and starts to get dressed.

"Just, make sure he doesn't see or hear you 'kay?" Rory says, and she opens the door of her room, heading out. Jess grabs her hand and pulls her to him into a deep kiss.

"Okay, now you can go." He says, and Rory smiles before hurrying out, and closing the door of her room behind her. She opens the front door. "Hey Dean." She says.

"Hey."

"I'm so sorry I wasn't at the bus station to meet you, but I overslept!" Rory pleads.

"I can see that." Dean smiles, as he looks at her pajama's and messy hair. He takes a step closer and hugs her lovingly. "I missed you." He says.

Rory hugs back. "I…missed you too." She lies.

Jess glances at them hugging and feels like 'accidentally' stumbling over something, revealing his presence and breaking them up, but he restrains himself, and leaves out the backdoor without making a sound.

* * *

That's it for Chapter one! Hope you liked it, and again, feel free to review!

Chapter two is already written, as are the next few chapters, but all that typing it from my hand-written story onto my computer is a real bitch! So just be patient, because the next chapter WILL come! eventually...


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own shit!

Hey everybody, here's Chapter Two!

Thanks for the great reviews! To those who said the whole Rory sleeping with Jess thing is OOC, I agree, but that's just the point! It's aaall part of my masterplan evil laughter, don't worry:D

Ahem so anyway, on with the story.

**Chapter Two**

"You're late!" Luke tells Jess, who just entered the diner.

"I know." Jess says, and starts cleaning tables.

"Where have you been?" Luke demands, following him around the diner.

"Out." Jess simply replies.

"Out? Alnight?"

"Yup."

"Where's my toolbox!"

"Huh. Must have left it at Rory's house."

"When I ask you to go fix Rory's tap, you go, you fix it, you come back, not stay out all night!"

"Got it."

Luke shakes his head and sighs frustrated, and walks back to the counter.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

A while later Jess is standing at the counter reading one of the books Rory gave him. He hears the bell chime and looks up, and he sees Dean coming in holding Rory's hand (Rory's there too, he's not just holding her hand, but he holds the hand with her attached to it). Rory and Jess look at each other, and they smile slightly, not noticeable to anyone but the two of them. She and Dean sit down at a table by the window.

"Eh, so what do you wanna eat?" Dean asks Rory.

"Well uh, I could go for some eggs, maybe, a side of pancakes…sausage…"

Dean laughs. "I guess I'll just stick with eggs."

Jess looks to see if Luke is around, but he went upstairs to get something, so he goes to Rory's table to take their order, bringing the coffeepot and two cups with him. "Coffee?" He asks, looking only at Rory.

"Need you ask?" Rory says pretending to be insulted.

Jess smirks as he puts the cups down and pours them coffee. "So what else do you want." He says, getting pad and pen ready.

They give him their order. "Be right up." He says, and leaves to give the orders to Caesar.

"Wow he seems in a good mood." Dean mentions.

"What do you mean?"

"Well he didn't give any sneers, no sarcasm, nothing."

"Well, maybe he got laid." Rory blurts out, and right after she said it, she regretted it, but Dean didn't seem to notice the grin that had appeared on her face while saying it.

Dean lifts his eyebrows. "Laid?" He asks skeptically. That sounded so not-Rory.

Rory blushes. "Well, you know, with…Shane?"

Dean lets out a short laugh. "Right." They fall silent for a moment, and Dean watches Rory play nervously with the end of her sleeve. She seemed different, more jumpy and nervous. After a while Dean opens his mouth to say something. "Do you…eh…" He starts, turning red.

"What?" Rory asks, looking up at him.

"Do you ever eh…you know…think, about uh…that?"

Rory frowns. "About what?"

"You know…_that_?" Dean says looking a bit nervous.

"Oh." Rory says guiltily. Of course she thought about it, she'd done it just last night…just not with him. The thought of Jess made her glance at his direction, he was reading again. She looked back at Dean. "I eh…I don't know, I guess, _some_times…sort of…" She says, suddenly feeling so terribly guilty.

Dean seems sort of surprised by this. "You do?"

"Well, don't you?"

"I don't know, I guess, yeah, me too…sometimes." He says, and gives her a nervous smile.

Jess glances at Rory as he puts his book down. It didn't matter to him that he knew Rory wanted to be with him and not Dean, he still hated seeing her with him. He keeps looking at her, hoping she'll catch his stare, and when she does, he gives her a meaningful look, and goes upstairs.

Rory looks at Dean. "Uhm, I have to use the bathroom." She says. She stands up and goes to Luke, who was just coming to their direction with their order. "Uh, Luke? Can I use your bathroom please?"

Luke puts the plates on the table, and sighs. "Sure, but just don't make a habit out of it, or people will think it's actually allowed to go up there."

Rory nods and goes upstairs. There she finds Jess leaning against the table, waiting for her. "Hey." She says.

"Hey."

Without saying anything more Jess walks up to her, softly pushes her against the wall, and kisses her passionately. He backs his head away. "So…you're not sorry?" He asks.

"Sorry? Why would I be sorry?"

"I just meant…well it _was_ your first time, wasn't it? And technically you're still with Dean…"

She sees in his eyes that there's more to this. "Jess?" She asks.

"Just…I just don't get it. Ever since last night I wondered…"

"What?"

"Why? Why me? I mean, you barely know me, and you've been with him for two years, why didn't you…with him…" He sighs.

"Because…it never felt right, I never felt ready. And Dean'd be damned if he'd ever say or do anything to upset me…and with you it just…felt right…like it was the thing to do…"

Jess nods.

Rory lets out an ironic laugh. "Dean wouldn't even bring it up if it wasn't for me just now."

Jess frowns. "Just now? What' you say?"

"Well he noticed in what a good mood you seemed to be in, and I said without thinking that maybe you'd…" Rory turns red, looks down and mutters. "Gotten laid."

Jess grins.

"And then he asked if I ever thought about doing it, and I said sometimes."

"Sometimes…huh." Jess says.

"I meant with you." She opts, and leans in for a kiss. "I'd better get back." She then says, and Jess nods before Rory walks back downstairs.

* * *

Rory sits in her room, doing some studying when the phone rings. She picks up. "Hello?" 

"Hi sweety!" Lorelai says on the other side.

"Hey mom!"

"How are you?"

"Fine, good."

"What were you doing?" Lorelai asks suspiciously.

"Oh I just finished cleaning up from this huge party I had last night, it was crazy! Everyone was there, including Kirk doing a topless Cher impression!"

"Aaah! Mental image! Scarred for life!"

"Hey, you asked for it!...So how's things at that thing you're at?"

"Oh dear God you won't believe the boredom! I got so bored, I actually started following a fly that was going through the room, and I started to wonder how fast their wings went, and how they must have _really_ good eyesight with all those eyes they have!"

"Oh my God! What have I done letting you go to that hell pit!"

"Yeah, that's right, I blame you!" Lorelai says with a smile on her face. "Well, I really miss you!"

"It's been a day and a half."

"Long enough."

"Yeah, but you'll be back tomorrow at…insert time here."

"Around one-ish."

"See, that's very soon."

"I guess…so, Dean back yet?"

"Uhu."

"You've been all with the snuggly wuggly, and the smoochies all day haven't you?"

"Well not so much, he had to go back home first, but we're hanging out tonight, rent a video."

"Oh you mean, randomly pick a movie so that you'll have some background noises while you're making with the smoochies?"

"Oh no, our evil plan has been discovered." Rory says dryly, but with a smile.

"Well, I gotta go, love ya honey."

"Love you too, bye." And they hang up. Rory is about to go back to her studying, when the phone rings again. "Can't a girl have some rest!" She picks the up. "Hello?"

"Hey."

Rory sits straight, a smile spreading across her face. "Hi."

"You busy tonight?"

Rory sighs. "Yeah, actually, Dean's coming over."

"…Guess I was sorta expecting that."

"I wish he wasn't, though." She says.

"Then break up with him, hit two problems at once." Jess says simply.

"I can't."

"Huh."

"Not tonight, not yet."

"Why not?"

"He just got back."

"So?"

"So…it wouldn't be fair. Just…wait a little."

"…Okay. Just don't make it a too long little."

"Promise."

* * *

Dean and Rory are sitting on the couch, actually watching the movie they rented. 

"So get this," Dean starts.

Rory turns her attention away from the TV.

"When I stopped by at Luke's for donuts –"

"Which I'm very grateful for, by the way." Rory says.

Dean smiles. "okay, so right after me, Shane comes in and does her usual jump-on-the-counter-and-kiss-Jess thing, and when they're _finally_ done, Jess just looks at her for a second and says 'So uh, I don't think we should see each other.'" Dean says, imitating Jess.

"He said that?" Rory asks wide-eyed.

"Yeah, and she's like, why not, and he just shrugged and said 'just, don't want to.' Man, that guy is such a jerk!"

"So, did she cry or something?"

"No she just shrugged an left."

"Oh…"

"So it's not like couple of the year just put an end to it."

Rory nods, feeling guilty about not doing the same with Dean, in a slightly nicer way though. This wasn't fair for both Jess and Dean. Oh god, poor Dean! She cheated on him, she was a cheater! It suddenly dawned upon her what a terrible thing she'd done.  
"Dean?" She asks.

"Yeah?"

Rory looks in his eyes, and decides now is not the best time, and just leans in for a kiss.

* * *

The next morning Rory and Dean are asleep on the couch, still in movie-mode. They get woken up by the sound of the doorbell.  
"What?" Rory asks as she looks around, still half asleep. "Whazzat?" 

A sleepy Dean smiles. "I believe it was the door."

"In the middle of the night?"

"I'll get it." Dean chuckles, and gets up. He opens the door, and it's Jess. They stare at each other, both not expecting the other there. Dean looks very irritated with Jess' presence.

Rory comes at the door rubbing her eyes and yawning. "Who's it?" She asks, and she looks upt to see Jess, suddenly she's wide awake. "Jess, what a- what are you doing here?" She asks.

"Luke wanted me to get his toolbox back." Jess says, showing now emotion on his face.

"At three in the morning?" Rory asks.

"It's ten." Jess replies dryly.

"Well, so, that's the same." Rory says, and she disappears to the kitchen to get the toolbox.  
Jess and Dean are still not saying a word to each other, they just stand there, staring. On the inside Jess laughs at him. If Dean only knew what his precious and he had been doing the other night…then again, he's probably try to beat him into pulp, so not so funny…  
Rory returns. "Here." She says while she hands him the toolbox, their hands briefly touching as Jess takes it from her. Oh how she wanted to touch him. If only he wasn't gorgeous and damn irresistible!

"Well, see ya." Jess says and turns around and leaves.

* * *

Well that's it for Chapter Two. Chapter three coming up soon, so stay tuned! 

BTW, sorry if you feel any of this is OOC, but I just like it this way so there…


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Yet again, I own nothing

Oh my god, I loooooove reviews :D they make me feel all happy…sighs…

Anyway, nD kS nW, I totally see your point, but as I said before, I have a plan, and it may seem totally OOC now, it'll get…a little less ooc later on :P. Also, don't worry, I wasn't planning on dragging the Dean thing out 'til the dance-marathon, coz that would be even more OOC…

(btw, for those who didn't know yet, OOC is Out Of Character)

So here's Chapter 3, hope you like!

**Chapter Three**

Around one-ish, Rory and Dean get to Luke's. Right in front of the window Dean stops her, and leaps down to give her a passionate kiss. Rory didn't exactly see that coming, and she sorta goes with it, her eyes drifting off, looking directly into _his_ eyes.  
He stands behind the counter, and when he sees her looking, he pretends to be reading.  
Finally Dean tears away from Rory. "I'll see you tomorrow, 'kay?"  
Rory puts on a fake smile. "Yeah, bye." She says, and enters the diner, where she goes right up to Jess.  
She just awaits him to speak.

After a while he says, without looking up from his book, "So'd you have fun with Dean last night?"

"What do you mean?" She asks carefully.

He just glares at her. He turns around, "Luke, I'm taking a break." He announces, and leaves upstairs.

Rory sighs, and looks around to make sure no one sees her, before she goes after him.  
"Jess, what?" She asks when she closes the door behind her.

"Are you sleeping with him?" He fires off.

"What?" Rory asks unbelieving.

"He spent the night, you come at the door with your shirt half unbuttoned, just outside he kissed you like he had the best night of his life."

"Jess-"

"- I mean, what was I, just the guy who took the pressure off the first time for you, so you didn't have to be so nervous about doing it with precious perfect Dean?"

"Jess, stop it!" Rory says upset. How could he say, or even think that? "How can you think-" She starts, but she is all choked up, and she tries to hold back her tears. What made him think she'd be that kind of girl? But she knew what did. Dean. He was jealous of Dean.

Jess looks down, still looking kind of mad. He sighs. "Look, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you like that." He looks up to her. "It's just, I can't stand that jerk! And just the though of him being with you, touching you, makes me-"

"-I know." Rory cuts him off, and she puts her hands on his cheeks. "Just, ease off, okay?" And she lets her hands slide down on his arms.

Jess nods. "So nothing happened?"

"Nothing happened." She shakes her head.

"You'll break up with him?"

"I will."

Jess nods.

"I have to go back down. My mom'll be there any minute."  
Jess gives her a soft kiss, and Rory goes downstairs.  
Just as she comes from behind the curtain, Lorelai enters the diner. "Rory!" She yells excited.

"Mom!" Rory yells back, and they hurry to each other in a tight embrace.  
Luke shakes his head.

"I thought I'd never see you again!" Lorelai says, acting serious. "If I'd stayed there for another second, I would have killed myself!"

Jess comes down, and also shakes his head at the exaggerated reunion of the Gilmores.

"Was it really that bad?" Rory asks as she and Lorelai sit down at a table.

"Like you wouldn't believe!" She reaches for the bag she dropped for the embrace. "But look what I gooot."

"Prezzies!" Rory says excited.

"Well, that one way of looking at it."

"What is it then?"

Lorelai reaches into the bag. "Original, home or factory made…" She grabs out a pack of some sort of cakes. "Local snacks!"

"Wow! These look great! Ooh, they don't even have a name! Exotic."

"I know." Lorelai says with a grin. "Okay, let's try them out, and if they're really gross, we'll make fun of everything that town embodies and is proud of!" She starts opening the pack, when Luke comes up to her.

"This is a diner."

"I know." She says seriously. "And we're here to dine, on these tasty whachamacallit's!"

"You have to order something _here._" Luke says grumpy.

"Okay, coffee please."

Luke opens his mouth to say something back, but he sighs and gives up, and gets them coffee.

"Where were we?" Lorelai asks, focusing back on Rory.

"You were opening the pack." Rory says with a full mouth, holding a half eaten cake in her hand.

"Hey!"

"I'm sorry!" She swallows. "They called out to me! I couldn't resist, it would've been rude!"

"Now you ruined it." Lorelai says with a disappointed face.

"They kept going like: Rory eat us, she could be talking to Luke for hours. You know you want to." She says, doing a little voice.

Lorelai gasps. "Dirty."

Rory shoves the rest of the cake in her mouth. "These are great by the way." She states.

Lorelai grumbles as she takes one from the pack.

* * *

They'd been sitting on a bench in the gazebo in silence for a few minutes now. They'd agreed to meet there already last night, Rory hadn't planned it like this, but she felt it was time.  
She takes his hand, and they look at each other.  
She wasn't sure if he knew what was coming, but she knew he knew something was up. 

"Dean." She finally says, her throat feeling dry.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Rory is back in her room. She feels really sad, and a few tears roll down her cheek, dripping off her chin.

"Is this about Jess?" He'd asked. She'd seen the hurt in his eyes.  
She told him, that Jess had something to do with it, but wasn't the main reason, that they'd just grown apart.  
It was horrible. He cried. She cried. Not because she still loved him or anything, but she still really cared for him, and didn't want to hurt him.  
He told her he'd seen it coming, but was afraid to admit it. She said how sorry she was, and they said goodbye, and she went home, tears rolling down.  
At home she saw her mom, and she told her she and Dean broke up, and she cried in her arms for a while before she went to her room.

What she would have wanted was to just confess everything to him, but she knew that if she did, he would hate her forever, and she couldn't handle that.  
She did want to stay friends with Dean, although she understood that right now that was impossible for both of them.

* * *

Jess was lying in bed. He hadn't see or heard from Rory for three days now, which was weird because she usually went to Luke's for coffee. He hadn't heard the news of the break up yet, even though it was going all over town, thanks to gossip queens Miss Patty and Babette.  
He just lay there staring at the ceiling, not being able to sleep all night. Was she even going to break up with Dean? Sure she said so, but how could he know? He was starting to doubt is she even loved him back. She hadn't said it that night, she just kissed him. He did say it. He had never told a girl that. Mostly because he had never felt it before. But she had let him be her first. The first to sleep with her, the first to see her undressed.  
Suddenly he realized how unreal it all seemed. In the two years she'd been with Dean she never let him touch her, and just like that in one night, she'd cheated on him with a guy she hardly knew. What if she felt it was a mistake, and that's why he hadn't heard from her? And what if she had slept with Dean before, but she lied to him just to appease him?  
His thoughts were depressing him deeply, but they were interrupted by Luke's voice. "Jess!" He called from downstairs. 

Jess sighs and gets off his bed. "What!" He yells back. He glances at the clock. It's already 9:45 Am.

"Come down, now!" Luke yells, his voice sounding annoyed.

Jess puts his shirt and jeans on, and goes downstairs. "What?" He asks again, but then he sees Rory sitting at the counter, and he blinks surprised.

"Rory's here to see you." Luke says, and continues his business.

Jess walks up to her.

"Hey." She says.

"Hi." He says sort of bitterly. He's still somewhat shaken up by his thoughts earlier.

"Can we talk?" Rory asks. "Outside?" She adds with a glance at miss Patty sitting supposedly innocent at the table in the corner.

Jess nods, and follows Rory outside.  
They slowly walk towards the town square. "So…is this where you tell me it was all a mistake and you're staying with Dean?" Jess asks without looking at Rory.

Rory frowns at him. "What?"

"Never mind." He quietly says.

They stop walking. "I though you'd probably heard already, since I saw Babette eavesdropping when it happened." Rory says. She takes a deep breath. "I broke up with Dean."

Jess looks surprised. "What? When?"

"Monday."

"And now it's Thursday."

"I know, I just needed some time, to think."

"So you were thinking, you and me isn't…the best idea?"

"_Is_ the best idea." Rory corrects him with a smile.

"So what' you tell Dean?"

"That it was partly because of you."

"So…" Jess takes a step closer to her. "If I went like this…" He entangles his fingers with hers, holding their hands up. "there would be no surprised stares?" Jess asks.

"Probably not." Rory smiles.

"How 'bout if I did this?" Jess asks as he dips in, and gives Rory the best kiss of both their lives.

Afterwards she looks around. "Nope, no stares." She states.

"Huh, that's a first." Jess nods.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Meanwhile, Lorelai is at home, picking dirty clothes off the floor and putting them into the laundry basket she's holding. She enters Rory's room, and picks up Rory's Chilton sweater. She gets on her knees and looks under the bed, where she finds besides Rory's stack of books, a belt. She gets up, holding it high. She frowns, as she examines the belt, not recognizing it.  
Then it dawns upon her. "Oh my god…" She mutters to herself.

* * *

Well that's chapter three…Oh no, cliffhanger! What's going to happen!  
You'll see soon, as I only have to type chapter four over, and put it on the net. 

So tune in next time for another exciting episode of…this story…:P (Review please:D)


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I own nothing blablabla

Hey people, here's Chapter four…hope you like it… and if not, please don't kill me in your review.

Anyway, here ya go!

**Chapter Four**

Rory enters the house with a smile on her face.

"Rory is that you?" Lorelai calls from the living room.

"No it's me, Santa!"

"Could you come in here?"

Rory walks to the living room where she sees Lorelai looking rather upset. "You wanna tell me what this is?" She asks accusingly as she holds up a belt for Rory to see.

Rory looks at it for a second. "Uh, it's a belt." Rory says confused.

"Yeah, it's a man's belt!"

Rory smirks. "Why'd you buy a man's belt?"

"I didn't buy it, I found it under _your_ bed!" Lorelai blames.

A shock goes through Rory. "You fo –"

"-Did you sleep with Dean?"

"No, mom!"

"Well this is his belt, I take it?"

"It's not Dean's belt!" Rory says.

Lorelai looks surprised. "Well honey, if it's not Dean's belt, who's is it then?" She demands, trying to keep her voice calm.

Should've told her it was Dean's. "It's uh…dad's?"

"Christopher's? He hasn't been his in like a year! Rory, just tell me!"

"Fine, it's Jess' okay!" Rory suddenly exclaims.

That one Lorelai didn't expect. "JESS'? She explodes. "Jess'! Rory don't tell me you had sex with Jess!" Her voice sounds panicked.

"I…I did." Rory mutters.

"Wh-uh, wh-when?" Lorelai asks wide-eyed.

"Friday…" Rory says with a tiny voice.

"FRIDAY?" Lorelai yells. "You had _sex_ with _Jess_ Friday, when you were still with Dean?" She doesn't realize just how loud her voice sounds, and how open the window is, and how eagerly Babette is eavesdropping on their fight in her yard.

"Yeah mom I did!" Rory starts yelling too now.

"So what, in the two years that you were with Dean you never felt ready, and then Jess shows up and you think 'well he's here now, I might as well have sex with him'?"

"It's not like that. We're in love, okay!"

"No, honey! He isn't in love with you, he just wanted to get in the pants of the town princess, tricking you into cheating on Dean!"

"Just stop it mom!"

"I can't believe you cheated on Dean! You love Dean!"

"No mom I don't! I haven't anymore for a while! And as much as you hate to hear it, I love Jess!" And with that Rory storms outside, where she sits herself on the steps of the front porch. Tears start running down her face. She gets up again, and runs away.

* * *

"Jess!" Lorelai bursts into Luke's diner. 

Everyone including Jess looks up startled. Lorelai storms to the counter. "You – you…" She says pointing her finger at Jess, trying to come up with something hurtful to say.

"Lorelai, calm down." Luke says, looking at her with caution

"You're scaring away the customers." Jess adds.

Lorelai gives him a destroying glare. "Give me one reason not to kill you!" She spits.

"Lorelai, what?" Luke asks.

"He-He…" Lorelai is so mad she can't even talk properly. "He did…to Rory, probably _forced _her to…You wrecked everything for her!" She says breathless, turning her attention back to Jess. "She and Dean were happy, they loved each other and you destroyed it you worthless piece of –"

"- What's this all about, you're not making sense!" Luke interrupts. The entire diner is listening and staring.  
Jess suddenly realizes that she knows, that she and Rory had a fight and Rory must be devastated somewhere. Without paying any more attention to Lorelai's furious rant, he hurries from behind the counter, and before anyone can stop him he runs out.

OOOOOOOOOO

Rory sits on the bridge, her feet dangling over the edge. She watches herself in the water as she cries her eyes out. He mom was right. She cheated on Dean in the worst way possible. Was she a slut? Dean had been nothing but good to her, and she threw it away like it was nothing. Dean didn't deserve this.  
Caught up in her thoughts and sobs, she doesn't hear the footsteps approaching.  
Suddenly she sees Jess in the reflection of the water, sitting down next to her. She looks at him, her blues eyes all red and her face tear-stained. He puts his arm around her shoulders, and she buries her face in his T-shirt.  
Jess just holds her, as she cries and her shoulders shock.

When Rory calms down a bit, she looks up at Jess. "Jess?"

"Yeah?"

"How'd you know I was here?"

Jess smirks. "Where else would you be?"

Rory gives him a faint smile.

"So what happened?" Jess asks.

Rory sighs. "She found your belt under my bed." She says bitterly, still sobbing a bit.

"Oh shit…I forgot all about that thing." Jess says spiteful.

"Yeah…" Rory nods.

They sit in silent for a while.

"I don't wanna go back there." Rory suddenly says.

Jess looks up at her, kinda surprised. "Ever…?"

Rory can't help but smile a bit at the idea of that. "No, just, not now…"

"Well, I'll stay with you if you want…"

Rory nods. "Stay." She confirms.

"I could maybe read you," he feels in his back pocket. "Damn, the one time it matters…"

"What were you reading, besides one of the books I gave you, coz I know you sometimes read more at a time."

"Three guesses." Jess says with a smile.

"No, not Howl again." Rory pretends to complain.

"Hey, it's got sentimental values." Jess smirks.

"Aw, y'old softy." She smiles, moved.

"You want me to go get it?"

Rory nods with a twinkle in her eye.

"Your copy or mine?"

"You are not breaking into my room!" Rory chuckles.

"Fine, if you want me to get killed by both Lorelai and Luke…"

"You can go through the back."

"No way, Caesar will hear me, besides I left it on the counter, right under their noses."

"But…you might find stuff." Rory pouts.

Jess raises and intrigued eyebrow. "Miss Gilmore, do you have stuff in your room that might be found inappropriate?" He smirks.

Rory laughs. "Just go get it."

"Fine, but I'm searching your room!" He says sternly.

"Oh no!" Rory fakes with a smile.

"Don't move." Jess says as he gets up, and hurries away.

Rory smiles to herself, and drops her head on the wooden planks of the bridge.

* * *

"Oh my god…" Sookie mumbles. They're in the kitchen on the Inn. 

"I know! I mean, she's my daughter and I love her, but what is she thinking cheating on Dean with that good for nothing punk!"

"Oh honey, you're just upset. I think Rory was just following her heart." Sookie tries to comfort her best friend.

"Yeah but couldn't she follow her heart in a slightly less extreme way? I mean a kiss okay, but she slept with the guy Sook! And it was her first time, I wanted it to be special for her and…later."

Sookie puts an arm around her. "I'm sure it was special for her, and…well…"

"What?"

"Well she _is_ 17! By the time you were 17 you were already nursing your baby!"

"Exactly, I was hoping that Rory wouldn't have to do that just yet!"

"Yeah but the chance that she'll get pregnant if she uses protection isn't _that_ big, Lor, you were just one of the few."

Lorelai sighs. "Maybe you're right…"

* * *

Rory smiles calmly as she listens to Jess reading Howls to her. Howl. That book was her favorite one. Not just because it was a really good book, but also because her and Jess' first book discussion had been about it. He had 'borrowed' it from her, saying he didn't read much, and when he returned it he'd written his personal thoughts in the margins, as he does with every book he reads. It turned out he actually did read a lot, a whole lot. She'd called him Dodger, making Oliver Twist her second favorite book.  
She sighs conted and she lies with her head resting on Jess' chest, his one arm around her, and the other one holding the book, and their legs stretched out over the bridge. 

He stops reading and Rory looks up, and she sees him grabbing a pen and writing something in the margins.

"You already wrote your notes in there." Rory says with a smile.

"Yeah but I updated since last time, and you should have these updates too." He smirks.

Rory kisses him.

"Alright, up!" They suddenly hear an angry voice above them.  
They quickly get up. "You're coming with me!" Luke says to Jess.

"What!"

Luke grabs Jess by the arm and starts dragging him along. Jess knows to hold himself long enough to quickly kiss Rory and say "I'll call you.", and they're off, leaving Rory a little bewildered.   
She wraps her arms around herself, when suddenly a horrible thought strikes her.  
If Luke knows, then Miss Patty knows, and if Patty knows…"Oh no!" She mumbles, and rushes off.

OOOOOOOOOO

"What the hell are you doing?" Jess asks agitated as he tries to keep up with Luke's pace.

"We're going home, and you're gonna pack!"

"What! What for?"

"You're going back!"

"I don't think so!"

Luke stops walking and turns Jess to him. "Jess, damn it! Can't you see how much trouble your making, and how Rory the cost of it!"

"What do you mean?"

"Jess she cheated on Dean for you! Do you really think that's something Rory just does without feeling bad for it? She's probably killing herself!"

Jess sighs. "I know, okay! But it's not like I forced her into doing it, like you, Lorelai and probably the rest of this damn town thinks! She started it."

Luke crosses his arms. "Oh _she_ started it!"

"Yeah, she was the one who started kissing me, she was the one who sat down on the bed, and she was the one who started taking my shirt off –"

"- okay enough details! So maybe it wasn't _entirely_ your doing, but you're going home to pack, while I talk to Lorelai, and we'll just see if you go back! Understand!"

Jess looks mad. "Fine!"

Luke nods furiously. "Yes, fine!"

* * *

Rory knocks on the door, and Sarah enters. "Rory." She coldly says. 

"Sarah, hi, uhm is Dean home?" She asks uncomfortably.

"Yes. But he doesn't want to see you."

"Please, I need to talk to him." Rory pleads.

"Sorry." Sarah says without meaning it, and she closes the door.

Rory sighs, and decides to climb the tree. Once up there, she goes to Dean's window. She sees him sitting there, and knocks on the glass.

Dean looks up startled. He hesitates before opening the window.

"Dean, hi." Rory starts.

"What are you doing?"

"Sarah said you wouldn't talk to me, but I _have_ to."

Dean just looks at her, waiting for her to continue.

"I was hoping I'd catch you before Miss Patty told you, or the entire town for that matter."

"Told me what?" His voice sounds annoyed, but also sad.

Rory sighs. He didn't know. Good –or, damn. Depends on how you look at it. "Okay here's the thing…" Rory takes another deep breath, and sees her hand shaking. She was scared, actually, scared of Dean's reaction. Would he explode? Would he storm out and beat Jess up? Would he beat her up, or maybe worse? Let's get it over with, she told herself. "You know how I said that it was partly because of Jess? Well I…" Oh god here comes the rambling. "Okay, I have to tell you because otherwise you'll hear it from Patty or Babette or something and it'll be so much worse then, and you'll be even more hurt because I didn't tell you and you didn't know and the entire town knows and I'm a horrible, horrible disgusting person who doesn't deserve to have had a boyfriend like you because I completely screwed up and I would understand if you hate me and yell at me, and you should hate me, _I _hate me, because what I've been trying to tell you is the fact of the matter is that I slept with Jess and it wasn't supposed to happen because I was supposed to love you, and not go off being the kind of person who cheats on her boyfriend who has been nothing but amazingly good to her." She takes a breath. It was out. She looks at Dean, who looks completely pale, and his expression wasn't one of anger like she thought it would be, but one of dread and fear. "You…" He tries to speak but his throat is completely dry and choked up.  
Tears start to well up in her eyes. "Dean I'm so, so sorry, I know you won't ever be able to forgive me…"

Dean just nods, his expression still horrified. He slowly gets up, closes the window and walks out of his room.

Rory just sits there, unsure of how he'd taken it.

* * *

Oh no! What's this? What's he going to do? Where's this going? Is Jess gonna leave? Why am I asking so many annoying questions? 

Okay nevermind, that was chapter four, hope ya liked it, review….:D


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own anything that can be found remotely attached to anything from Gilmore Girls, although I do own some taped GG episodes…but I didn't make them up or something…

Okay first of all, Thanks sooo much for you reviews:D!

Second, so, when I wrote chapter four I had the name Sarah in my head as Dean's little sister, but then sunday when I already put the chapter on the net, I watched "That'll do, Pig", I realized that her name was actually Clara, but you can see the confusion since Sarah and Clara are very similar...so sorry about that.

Anyway, here's chapter 5.

**Chapter Five**

It's dark outside when Rory enters the house. She'd just been wandering through town, not sure of what to do or where to go. She kept being afraid that Dean would come to his senses and beat her and/or Jess up or something.  
After a while she just decided to go home, and face her mom.  
She softly closes the door behind her, and goes to the living room, where she sees her mom on the couch and Sookie with an arm around her shoulder, and a worried expression on her face. In front of them there's Luke, pacing anxiously through the room. They all look up, and Lorelai looks as if she'd been crying. "Rory!" She yelps, and jumps up and rushes to her daughter, taking her into her arms. "Oh my god, I was so worried! Where were you? Are you okay?" She look at Rory, who just nods.

"Uhm, I told Dean." Rory says really softly and hoarse. She looks at her feet.

"You told Dean about Jess?" Lorelai asks.

Rory nods.

"Oh honey." Lorelai hugs her again, knowing this isn't the time to be angry at her daughter anymore. "Was it bad?" She asks a somewhat rhetorical question.

"I'm not sure."

Lorelai looks at her again.

"He got all pale, and he didn't say anything while I was just rambling like an idiot, blurting everything out, and he just closed the window and left, coz oh yeah I climbed the tree to go to the window coz his sister said he didn't want to see me."

Lorelai looks at her with worry and sympathy. She saw that this was all really rough for Rory. "Honey, you wanna get some sleep? We'll talk about this in the morning, when you'll feel a bit better."

Rory nods again, and walks to her room.

Lorelai sighs and turns to Sookie and Luke.

"God, poor thing." Sookie says with pity.

Luke starts pacing again. "That's it! That kid's gotta go!"

Lorelai looks up. "What?"

A shock goes through Rory, as she heard Luke say that from her room. He's sending Jess back? He can't, he won't…would he? If he would, she'd go with him, she decides.

"He's causing too much trouble! Look what kind of a mess he brought Rory in!" Luke goes on.

Sookie gets up. "You can't do that!"

Luke stops, and looks at her with a questioning expression. "What?"

"Luke, honey, God loves you for your coffee, but you're kind of an idiot." Lorelai chips in.

"Okay, remember how you hate Jess and wanted to kill him?" Luke asks with deepening disturbance.

"Hello, those two kids _just_ got together, apparently Rory loves him otherwise she wouldn't have slept with him. So as much as I hate it, but he has to stay, otherwise Rory'll hate me for it forever." Lorelai says.

"You wouldn't want to be responsible for that right?" Sookie says.

Luke buries his face in his hands. "Fine!"

Rory lets out a sigh of relief, and slides back into bed.

"But you gotta let me punish him somehow."

"Oh sure, sure, knock yourself out." Lorelai says with a smirk.

* * *

Rory wakes up at five in the morning. She looks at the clock, realizing the earliness. She sighs and drops her head on the pillow. "Too early." She moans, and tries to go back to sleep. After 15 minutes of turning around over and over, she decides to get out.  
In the kitchen she finds Lorelai, drinking a cup of coffee. 

"Morning sunshine." She says cheerily.

Rory just stares at her. "Mom, do you even know what time it is?"

Lorelai sighs. "Yeah, but I woke up a little earlier than I planned to, and couldn't sleep anymore so I just decided to get up. Besides, what are _you_ doing here?"

Rory smirks. "Same." She pours herself a cup of coffee.

Lorelai watches her carefully. "So…are we gonna talk about this?"

Rory sighs. "I was hoping to sorta put it off 'til later…but I guess…"

"Okay, and I promise we're gonna do it rationally, and calm, and no yelling or getting mad."

Rory nods. "Okay."

Lorelai takes a deep breath. "So…what happened?"

"Well…" Rory fidgets a little, not looking at Lorelai. "You mean with Jess?"

"Yeah, sure, start at the beginning. But no details about anything I don't wanna know about!"

"Well okay, I was just getting ready to make coffee and the tap broke off so I called Luke, but he was busy so he sent Jess, and we got into a fight sort of, and then he said that he was in love with me, and I wanted to say it back, but I just kissed him, and I gave him some books in my room and he kissed me again and well, I was so caught up in the moment and stuff that I sat down on the bed and you know…took his shirt off, and then other things happened…But it's not like I didn't want it to happen, but I kinda forgot about Dean…" Rory rambles, her face starting to get red.

Lorelai listens to the story a bit thrown. Her daughter, Rory, the sweet little girl who was always so shy and nervous around boys, actually started this? She couldn't help but smile a little, a bittersweet smile nonetheless, at how grown up she had become. Sort of…  
"Okay, so you had the sex, and then what?"

Rory tells the rest of the story as fast as she can, hoping her mom won't yell at her again, and she'll understand.

When Rory's finished, Lorelai walks over to her, and hugs her tightly. "I'm sorry for yelling at you. I was just a little very surprised and you know…it was all _very _unexpected."

Rory nods. "I know." She looks up at her mother. "So…we're okay now?"

Lorelai smiles. "Well, we still have to have a serious talk about you and Jess, but yeah, we're okay." She looks at the clock. "Oh, your story took a little longer than expected, and I promised Sookie I'd be at the Inn early today, so you okay with going to Luke's by yourself for breakfast?"

Rory smiles. "Sure." And she goes to her room to get dressed.

* * *

Rory is on her way to the diner when she hears a voice calling her name. She turns around and sees Lane running towards her. 

"Rory." She says when she's caught up with her, and she catches her breath. When she's recovered she swats Rory on the arm.

"Hey!"

"You didn't tell me! Me, your best friend!"

"Oh…" Rory looks ashamed.

"I had to hear it from that girl Lindsay, who by the way seems very interested in Dean, who heard from Kirk, who heard from Babette!"

"Lindsay likes Dean?"

"Not the point Rory!" Lane seems upset.

"You're right, I'm sorry." Rory sighs, and she takes Lane to a bench where they sit down.  
"Okay, you want me to tell you everything?"

"'til the last detail, well you know except for the groping part. And I'll even pretend to hear it all for the first time." A smile slowly appearing on her face.

Rory sighs again, and tells the whole story from Jess coming to fix the tap to her telling Dean, frequently interrupted by 'What!'s and 'Oh my god!'s from Lane.  
When she's finished, she looks at Lane who is grinning.

"Wow! This is _so_ cool. I mean not so much the Dean part, that was bad and unfun for you, but just…wow!"

"I know." Rory's grinning too now, feeling a bit relieved.

"I mean no offence, but Jess is so much cooler than Dean, you know? He has that whole bad boy thing but in an interesting way. I mean Dean is all…you know, and Jess is more…you know?" Lane says.

Rory sighs. "I know."

"…I can't believe you had sex!" Lane suddenly exclaims. "So how was it?" She asks eagerly.

"Well…at first it was, painful, a bit, but then…it was nice. It was great." Rory blushes. She looks at her watch. "Hey can we go to Luke's? I'm starving and I need some coffee before I go to school." They get up and go to Luke's. "Oh hey Lane."

"Yeah?"

"If at school, you see Dean and Jess coming dangerously close to each other, could you make sure they…don't? I'm just a little afraid Dean might try to kill him."

"Sure, I will." Lane says, and they enter Luke's.

* * *

"Rory!" paris yells, as Rory walks through the halls of Chilton. She turns around. 

"Paris."

"Are you busy?"

"Well, actually –"

"- Good." Paris cuts her off. "We're late with the Franklin! It's due next week, and we're still missing two articles!"

"Well Paris –"

"- So I've arranged a last minute Franklin meeting." Paris says, while she grabs Rory by the arm and drags her into a classroom, where all the other Franklin-members sit, looking annoyed. "Clear your schedule Gilmore, we're pulling an all-nighter." And she walks to the head of the table. "Alright people, we have much to do, and very little time!"

Rory rolls her eyes, and decides listening to Madeline and Louise whispering about their dates for this weekend is much more interesting than Paris' rant.

OOOOOOOOOOO

At 8 PM, when they're finally released, Rory walks out of the classroom, completely beat.

"Rory." Madeline says, and she and Louise come up to her.

Rory looks at them curiously as they look around, and lead Rory into a bathroom.

"You had sex." Louise says matter of factly when they close the door.

Rory's a little thrown by this. "Uh…h- how do you know?"

"It's all in the eyes, I can see it from miles away."

"Oh uh…"

"Well…" Louise nudges.

"Who was it?" Madeline asks.

"Was it that tall guy from the dance?"

"No, not Dean." Rory says, uncomfortably and turning red.

"Not? Well who then?" Louise pushes.

"Some guy, you don't know him. He lives in Stars Hallow."

"Oh, so he's boring then?"

"No! He's – he's not, he used to live in New York."

"Ooh, score!" Madeline says with a grin.

Rory looks confused. Why were they asking her all this? "Well, this had been fun…" Rory starts to walk away.

"Hold on!" They hold her back. "We need you to sign this." Madeline holds up a form and a pen.

"What's this?"

"It's an agreement where you officially shed your name as Mary." Louise says seriously.

"What? I thought that was just an annoying nickname!"

"No it's all very official."

Rory sighs annoyed. "Ugh, fine!" And she signs.

Louise holds out her hand. "Welcome to our side." She says, and Rory shakes her hand with a confused look.

* * *

The doorbell rings at the elder Gilmore residence.  
"Julienne, get that please!" Emily orders the maid from the living room. 

Rory enters. "Ah Rory!" her grandmother says delighted.

"Hey hon." Lorelai says, who sits on the couch.

"Hey. Sorry I couldn't make dinner. Paris kept us as prisoner all day."

"Yes, so you said on the phone." Emily says with a forgiving smile.

"Well, I think it's good that you're working so hard at school. Nothing wrong with a little extra exercise of the mind." Richard says, looking up from his paper.

"Well it was nice of you to stop by, even though it was after dinner time." Emily says, with a glance at Lorelai, who, she knows, never would have done the same.

Lorelai pats on the place next to her, and Rory sits down.

"So Rory, I take it everything progressed well with that school paper of yours?" Richards asks, folding his newspaper up.

"Oh yes it went fine, although Paris didn't seem to think so, but she's always exaggerating."

"Well that's good."

"Oh that reminds me, we're having a little party in two weeks." Emily says.

"The Chilton newspaper reminds you of having a party?" Lorelai asks with a frown.

Emily chooses to ignore that. "It's nothing big, only around sixty people are coming. Of course you two are invited too. Lorelai you can bring someone if you'd like." She says with a meaningful glare at her daughter. "And of course Rory you can bring that boyfriend of yours, Dean."

"Oh eh…" Rory exchanges a glance with her mother, who just nods a little. "Actually, grandma, I'm not uh, not with Dean anymore, we broke up."

"Well that's a shame!" Richard says almost convincingly.

Emily looks somewhat disappointed. "Well that's too bad, what happened?"

"eh, we just, grew apart, that's all."

"So, is there anyone new in sight?" Richard asks, suddenly sounding very chipper. "Someone from Chilton perhaps?" He adds hopeful.

"Yeah, but he's not…" She pauses. If she'd tell them, they probably would want to meet him, and she didn't think they were quite ready for that yet. "He's not interested." She decides to say.

"Well that's nonsense! Who wouldn't be interested in a beautiful girl like you?" Emily says insulted.

"Well, he's already got a girlfriend."

"Oh…that's too bad."

* * *

Lorelai shakes her head, as they drive back home. "I can't believe dad! The minute you said you and Dean broke up, he got all happy and excited, I mean, he could at least _pretend_ to be sorry for you!" 

"Well he never liked Dean." Rory says.

"The way he asked if you like someone from _Chilton_, as if that would make the guy any better!"

"Hey, speaking of Chilton, you'll never believe what happened to me today!" Rory says, happy to be able to change the subject.

Lorelai looks at Rory. "What?"

"Well after the Franklin meeting, Madeline and Louise dragged me into the bathrooms, where they made me sign this agreement that I wasn't to be called Mary anymore because I was you know…no longer a Mary-type-person."

Lorelai frowns. "So…they made you _sign_ a contract because you had sex? Did they also teach you the secret handshake and give you the member-pass?" Lorelai laughs.

"They were all weird and official, and said like welcome to _our_ side."

"What side is that? The one where they all get together and have big orgies?"

"Mom!"

"What? They did have you sign a contract about sex!"

"It wasn't a contract…more like, an acknowledgement." Rory says a little weirded out.

"Did you make sure to read the fine print, where it says you have to have sex at least twice a month in order to stay member?"

"Okay forget I brought it up!" Rory says, and they remain silent for a while.

"Or at least with two different guys a month?" Lorelai then says.

"Mom!"

"Sorry, I just had to get that one out."

Rory rolls her eyes, but can't hide the amused smile on her face.

* * *

Well that's all folks! Hope you weren't disappointed with anything, and please review. 

Next chapter will very possibly maybe there's a slight chance that it will be up later today, since I don't have school tomorrow, so I can stay up all night :D


	6. Chapter 6

Okay so I know I said I'd update that same night, but I had some sort of a writer'sblock going on, and I couldn't find the inspiration to write the rest until today. So sorry…

Disclaimer: owns nothing blabla yadayadayada

So sorry about the non-Jess/Rory interaction of last chapter, but I guess they can't always be together right? Every once in a while, they live for something besides each other :P.

Anway, so here's chapter six, hope you like it etc.  
By the way, I'm sorry if the last few chapters have been less good or something, coz I always begin with having an idea, but at the end, the thing I had the idea about is already written, and then I don't know how to continue…so I always have to wait for inspiration to come, and sometimes it doesn't, and sometimes it does and I'm struck with a brilliant idea!...

Well on with it then!

Oh yeah, PS: There's some stuff in this chapter where you might think it's cliché and so been-there-done-that, but just bare with me here, coz it's not what you think…

**Chapter Six**

"So today was the first time since I told him that he came to school?" Rory asks in the phone the next Thursday.

"Yeah, it was weird, coz I went to talk to him, but he like got away as fast as he could." Lane says on the other side.

"Oh I hope people weren't all over him, saying how terrible it is for him, because that usually just makes it worse." Rory says. She was relieved the people of Stars Hallow _finally_ stopped gossiping about her and Jess, she didn't know how they knew but she had a pretty good suspicion, but Dean going back to school after a week may have given them a reason to pick the subject up again, and she was sort of getting sick of the stares and Taylor making disappointed noises around her, even though she deserved every one of those. She glances at the calendar to see the date, and what she sees makes her completely numb, and she can't hear Lane anymore who is saying something. She was a week late on her period. "Lane, I'm gonna have to call you back." She says with a dry throat, and she hangs up. She stands up and starts pacing through the room. What did this mean? What she pregnant? She couldn't be, they were safe! But…her mom had been safe too. She had to know, so she hurries outside.

OOOOOOOOOOO

In the drugstore, she looks at all the pregnancy tests. There are so many of them, she doesn't know which to choose. Finally she takes the one that seems the most reliable. Unfortunately, she didn't see Miss Patty, who came by for her diet-pills that didn't seem to be working, who was curiously looking at what Rory was buying. When Rory leaves the store with the pregnancy test, she presses her hand against her hand. "Oh my…" She mumbles, then hurries out the store, and quickly runs to Luke's. She bursts in, forgetting all sense of discretion and announces to the entire (filled, I might add) diner, "Everybody, Rory's pregnant!"

Both Luke's and Jess' heads shoot up with horrified expressions on their faces.

"What?" Luke exclaims. "What do you mean 'Rory's pregnant'!"

"Just now I saw her leave the drugstore with a pregnancy test!" Patty says, looking excited about this hot news.

"But that doesn't mean sh-" Jess doesn't hear the rest of what Luke says, because he runs out of the diner as fast as his legs are capable of right now, and hurries to Rory's house.

When he gets there he slows down, as he approaches the front door. He raises his hand to knock, but hesitates, and decides to go through the back.  
He slowly enters, and right away he notices the empty pregnancy test box lying on the kitchen table. He picks it up and looks at it. He runs a hand through his hair, and wipes some sweat off his growing paler forehead, which he didn't notice was there.   
He goes to the living room, where he sees Rory sitting on the couch, looking scared out of her mind. Jess hesitantly sits down besides her. They don't look at each other, but just stare at their hands resting on their laps.

"So are-are you…" Jess starts hoarsely, with a swift glance at the test lying on the coffee table.

"The…The test isn't ready yet…" Rory says barely hearable.

Jess nods slightly.

A minute passes by in silent. Rory looks at her watch, and sighs reluctantly. "Well…" With a shaking hand she reaches for the instructions and the test.  
After studying it for a while, she closes her eyes and sighs deeply.

Jess looks up worried. "Is it…"

"It's negative!" Rory says with a nervous laugh.

They both sigh relieved, and hug each other. "Oh my god, I was so scared!" Rory says.

"Uhu." Jess says, acknowledging the fact that he was too. He pulls away from her. "Just so you know…if you were…you know…I would've been there for you." He says seriously. "All the way."

Rory smiles slightly. "I know."

That moment Lorelai bursts through the door, looking panicked. She sees Rory and Jess on the couch. "Jess, out!" She says.

The two stand up. "But, I-"

"Out now! Before I lose my temper real badly and you start losing body parts!"

Jess nods, and with a glance at Rory he's out.

Lorelai walks to her daughter, grabbing her by the arms. "Rory, Luke called, are you pregnant? Please tell me you're not pregnant!"

"I'm not." Rory shakes her head.

"You're not?" Lorelai lets out the most relieved sigh ever, and hugs Rory. "I don't think I've ever been that scared!" She closes her eyes.

"Me neither." Rory says muffled.

Lorelai takes Rory's head between her hands. "Don't ever do that to me again!"

Rory shakes her head.

"Why did you think you were pregnant? Weren't you safe?"

"I was, I really, really was, but I realized I was a week late and jumped to panicked conclusions!" Rory sighs shakily. She looks at her mother. "Mommy?"

"Yes honey?"

"I…I had sex!"

Lorelai gives her a faint smile. "Oh Rory." They sit down on the couch and she puts her arm around Rory's shoulders. "Took you that long to realize it huh?"

"It's just, the past two weeks I've been all caught up in this weird daze, and now with this harsh wake-up call I suddenly realize how incredibly not-me I've been! I don't do this! I don't sleep with someone who isn't even my boyfriend no matter how much I'm in love with him! And I made it seem all like I didn't feel guilty about it when I did, I _so_ did! And I told Dean everything. _Everything_ mom! I expected him to beat me up or yell at me, but he didn't say or do anything and I don't know why and I'm scared!" Rory takes a deep breath after her rant, and looks at her mother, who just smiles.

"Rory, my baby, I know how you feel, _believe_ me! This is just what boys like Jess to do girls, I had the same thing with Christopher! They're all mysterious and sarcastic and different than other guys, and make you act like someone completely opposite of you. Now I'm not saying I approve the you and Jess thing, which _believe_ me, I don't. But I guess I don't blame you. I mean of course at first I did, but I understand." Lorelai hugs Rory tightly.

Rory breaks out of the hug. "But mom, having the sex thing is something I wouldn't even have considered, and I still don't really, but now it already happened and what if he wants to do it again?"

"Just tell him you want to wait, which I think you should if you feel this way. But either way, I'm putting you on every anti-conception method possible."

Rory looks at her other confused. "But I thought you didn't want me seeing Jess?"

Lorelai sighs. "I don't. I actually kind of hate it because he has a bad influence on you," Lorelai laughs a little. "But I can't tell you who to love, and if you love Jess, I'm not gonna be the one to stand in the way of that."

They hug again. "Thank you mom. I love you." Rory says.

"I love you too, honey. I'm so relieved you're not pregnant. I already started to get flashbacks from when I got pregnant and my mom found out and I completely flipped!"

"Me too." Rory remember something. "Mom? How did you know I might be pregnant?"

"Luke called me."

"Uhu." Rory nods, knowing her worst fear is probably realized. "And…how did Luke know, or Jess for that matter?"

"Uhm, he didn't say, but I heard Patty and Taylor talking excitedly in the background and –" Lorelai suddenly gets it. "Damn, this means the _whole_ town thinks your pregnant!" She says with big eyes.

Rory jumps up. "No! Why can't she ever just keep something to herself!" Rory cries out. "We-we have to fix this!"

Lorelai jumps up too. "How?"

"I don't know!"

"Oh I know! We'll ask Taylor to arrange a town-meeting and we'll tell everyone that it's not true and they should stop lying coz they'll go to hell for it and that'll scare 'em off!"

"Yeah! But, oh wait, what if Dean comes?"

"Then we won't tell him about the meeting."

"But what if he heard about the thing and thinks I'm pregnant?"

"You're right, we will tell him to come."

"Oh but what if he finally came around and is really really mad?"

"Okay we won't tell him to come."

"Yeah, but shouldn't he know it's not true?"

"Okay honey, you gotta make up your mind here."

Rory lets out a frustrated sigh. "Fine, he'll have to come. Maybe he won't even show up. God this is just so frustrating because I still have no idea how Dean actually took it!"

Lorelai gives her a sympathetic smile. "Want some coffee to cheer you up?"

Rory pouts. "I'd love some, but I gotta find Jess. He seemed pretty freaked out before."

Lorelai nods. "Okay, I'll talk to Taylor about the town-meeting." And they both head out.

* * *

Jess is sitting on the bridge. Where else right. He's just staring into space. Thinking.  
He brings a cigarette to his mouth, and blows the smoke out. Pregnant. What if she had been pregnant? Would he have freaked out? Or would he have waited to freak out when the…baby, was actually born, following the footsteps of his own father. No, he wouldn't. He won't end up like his father, he refused to.  
He takes another drag from his cigarette, and he notices Rory walking up to him. She sits down next to him. "Hey." She softly says. 

"Hey." He replies, and he takes her hand, lacing their fingers with each others.

"Are you okay?"

"Sure."

"No you're not. I'm not anyway. I'm still totally freaked out. I mean just a half an hour ago there was a chance our lives would never be the same again, and it's scary."

Jess looks at her. He sighs. "You're right, it is."

"I mean everything would be different…I wouldn't be able to go Harvard, maybe I couldn't even finish Chilton! And we'd have this kid to take care of and my mom would freak and my grandparents would think it's her fault for not watching me closer and –"

"- Rory, you're rambling!" He wraps his arm around her waist. "Look, it's okay. It was just false alarm, so, all that won't have to happen. You can still go to Harvard."

Rory sighs. "I know. Just the thought of…" She trails off. "But you're right. Everything's fine. We're fine." She smiles softly.  
They fall into a comfortable silence for a while, leaning against each other, and looking at the water.

"Jess?" Rory asks after while.

"Hm?"

"Uhm…okay, about the whole sex thing?" Rory says while looking at her feet dangling over the edge of the bridge.  
Jess looks at her.

"Well it was great, and, I really don't regret it or anything but…well it's just that, it was sort of a spur-of-the- moment thing and normally I wouldn't even have thought about it, but you know, if we're gonna do this…me and you…I just wanna, you know –"

"-You want to wait, it's okay, I understand." Jess says with a small smile.

"You do?"

"Sure. I mean yeah, it _was_ great, but it didn't seem like the thing you would just do." Jess shrugs.

Rory smiles. "Thank you for understanding."

Jess smirks. "Come here." He says as he takes her head and kisses her gently. Rory wraps her arms around him, and the kiss becomes more passionate.  
They pull back and rest their foreheads against each other.

"You know what I just realized?" Rory starts as she sits straight. "We've missed the beginning of us being together." She says in a sort of disappointed way.

"What?" Jess frowns.

"You know how in the beginning it's all great, and exciting and you're together like 24/7?"

"Uh, not really."

"Oh. But it's so great, and we've missed it! Because we started out pretty messy and we had to deal with the consequences of our actions, and the stares, and the disappointed looks, and the talking to my mom, and school, and the possible pregnancy…We barely even saw each other."

Jess smirks. "Okay, so how about we make _this_ our official beginning?"

"Really?" Rory says with a smile.

"Really." Jess says, and he kisses her again.

* * *

"Okay quiet down everyone!" Taylor says, slamming his hammer on the table. Everyone quiets down, and sits, eagerly wanting to know what this town-meeting is about. "Alright. Now I apologize for the short notice, but _apparently_ there was something miss Gilmore wanted to share with us. Now before I give her the word, I have to say that I'm very disappointed in you young lady." He looks sternly at Rory, who just stands beside him awkwardly. "I expected so much of this from that hooligan, but not you." 

"For God sakes would you just let the girl talk!" Babette yells from her seat.

"Yeah, what if she is trying to share the name of the baby with us. I personally hope it'll be named after me. My mother says I have a very unusual name." Kirk says seriously.

"Oh by the way, congratulations honey!" Patty says to Rory with a wink.

Rory just frowns disturbed.

"Alright everyone, that's enough! Fine, Rory, the stage is all yours." Taylor says somewhat sarcastic.

Rory sighs, and takes Taylor's place. She takes an unsure glance at Lorelai, who stands beside her and unsurely smiles. She looks around to see who's there. Just the usual crowd is there, but no sight of Dean though. "Okay. First of all I want to thank you for coming, even though it was in short notice."  
The people just look at her, waiting to continue. "So, the reason I asked you to come is that, well, there's been a big misunderstanding that led you all to believe that I'm pregnant. I just wanted to set it straight, that I'm not, and it would be very considerate if certain people (she glances at Patty and Babette for a second) won't be spreading around rumors about me, or anyone in this town for that matter, that aren't actually true, or not confirmed to be."

Everyone starts talking through each other. "Does this mean there won't be a Kirk2?" Kirk asks with a disappointed look.

"What about that whole you and Jess thing, was that true or not?" Patty asks eagerly.

Taylor takes his original place again, pushing Rory aside, and starts slamming his hammer. "Calm down people! Order!"  
The people calm down. "Now, I must say I'm quite relieved to hear this. However, I -"

"-Taylor would you just let it go!" Lorelai cuts him off.

Taylor glares at her. "Fine! Is there anything anyone else would like to _share_ with the rest?" It remains silent. "Okay, meeting adjourned then! The next meeting will take place in its original time."  
Everyone stands up, shoveling with chairs and talking excitedly to each other.

"Well…that went well." Lorelai states.

"Uhu, yeah, great." Rory says with an unsure look. "You think they got it? I mean, they got it right?"

"I think so…yeah, probably." She looks at Rory's face. "Definitely." She smiles awkwardly. "Well…we're done, I'm wiped, coffee now."

"Okay, Luke's it is." And the two girls head outside

* * *

Hm...seemed kinda short...well, anyway, that was chapter six, hope ya liked it.  
I think I already have an idea what next chapter's going to be about, but it might take longer to update than before, because I had all that stuff written down already, but now I'm all out of material, and I have to come up with new stuff, so bare with me. Thank you for your time, goodnight. (or morning/afternoon…) 


	7. Chapter 7

Hiya people, sorry 'bout the hold up. I was stuck, and I didn't know where to go with the story. But then last weekend I stayed over at a friend's place, and we watched a loooot of GG en my inspiration got renewed! But then it took me forever to write this chapter anyway, so sorry about that!

Disclaimer: I do wonder why you have to keep putting this thing on here...I mean, it's not like after the first time you said it you suddenly do own anything...I mean, where's the point! It's just a cruel way to remind you to the fact that you don't own the show, so there's absolutely no way of rewriting season 5, coz that's just completely out of character for Rory, and also, bring Jess back to be with her forever!

So here you go, chapter seven! Hope you like it, please don't yell if you don't! And please R&R :D

**Chapter Seven**

"How much farther?" Lorelai whines as she and Rory walk down the street, they're only a few meters away from Luke's.

"Don't worry, only about 10 steps." Rory smiles, patting her mother on the back.

"What was I thinking taking out the trash before having coffee?"

"My mother, the drama queen, everyone."

"Can't…go on…"  
They enter the diner. "Thank God! Luke!" Lorelai hurries to a table. "Coffee, now!"

Luke comes from the kitchen. "Oh great, it's here, the fun can begin." He says sarcastically, and goes over to them.

"As funny as you are Luke, I'm not up for your jokes."

"Wait…_you_?"

"She had to empty one _entire_ half-filled trashcan!" Rory says mockingly. "_Without_ coffee!"

"Gasp, what was I thinking not hurrying over with my coffee to destroy your health." Luke says dryly.

Lorelai acts like she's dying, with a lot of coughing and choking noises. "Please…" She says weakly, resting her head on the table.

Luke sighs, and gets her a cup of coffee. "Every single day." He mumbles to himself.

Lorelai jumps up. "Jay!"

Rory grins, as she gratefully takes her own cup. "Thanks Luke."

"Yeah, we'll just see if you'll still be thanking me when you're pushing up daisies next to your mother."

"Can I have a Danish with this?" Lorelai asks.

Luke sighs. "What day is this?"

"Saturday."

"So is it Danish-day?"

"Uh, every day is Danish-day where I live."

"And where is that, Nutsville?"

"I'm hurt! You know I live in _Towns_ville! Where the Power Puff Girls save the day!"

Luke gives her a look. "The Power Puff Girls?"

"Yeah you know, those girls with the pumpkin-heads, and superpowers, and that mayor, oh he's so funny –"

"-I'll get you that Danish." Luke grunts, not wanting to hear the rest of that.

Rory laughs, but is distracted when she sees Dean is about to enter, but when he sees her, he changes his mind and walks away. "I'll be right back." She says to Lorelai, and walks out of the diner, following Dean. "Dean!" She yells.

He doesn't stop walking.

"Dean, come on!"

He finally stops, but doesn't turn around. Rory catches up with him, and walks around him to face him. He sighs, avoiding eye contact. "You can't just keep avoiding me." Rory says.

Dean doesn't answer.

"Look Dean, I know I hurt you real but, but just…"

"What, Rory!" Dean suddenly exclaims.

"I wish you'd just give a reaction!"

"Like what, you want me to yell at you? You want me to beat up Jess?" Dean yells.

"I –"

"- This goes beyond that Rory! I wish it were as simple as just storm in and beat up Jess, but it's not! It's too painful for that. Every time I even see you my heart gets ripped apart!"

Rory opens her mouth to say something, but no words come, as tears start to well up in her eyes. "I'm so sorry. I – I never meant for any of this to happen. I still really care about you Dean."

Dean looks down, calming down a bit. "You just don't love me anymore." His voice sounds broken.

Rory takes a step closer to him. "Is there a way we can…maybe some day…be friends?" She asks hopeful.

Dean sighs. "I don't know. Maybe. After a while. I just don't think I'll ever forgive you for what you did…"

"I know…I just…I miss talking to you. I mean we saw each other every day, and for that to just stop cold turkey…it's hard."

Dean sighs and looks down. "I know."

Rory hesitates, before she puts her arms around his waist and hugs him.

Dean blinks away a few tears, as he reluctantly puts his arms around Rory, returning the hug. Both of them never notice that half of Stars Hallow, including Jess, is watching them.

* * *

Rory enters the house, still looking sad. 

Lorelai right away comes up to her. "Are you okay?"

"I guess."

She pulls Rory into a hug. "That was quite a scene you performed there, honey." She lets Rory go and leads her to the couch.

"I just, I can't stand all this emotional stuff anymore! I wish everything could just be fine."

"I know, but it takes time. Eventually it'll be better."

Rory sighs. "Eventually sounds awfully long."

Lorelai gives her a small smile. "How 'bout we have a movie-night? Feel-good movies without drama only."

"No-drama sounds good."

"How 'bout _Thelma & Louise_?"

"That's not no drama."

"Yeah, but it has no romance in it whatsoever."

"Fine."

"Oh, and _Scream_!"

"I thought you said this would be a feel-good movie night?"

"Well I changed my mind."

"Fine, but I want _Groundhog day_!"

"Ooh, I love that one!"

The phone rings, and Rory gets up to answer. "Hello?"

"Hello, it's Michel, put your mother on." Michel says, sounding annoyed.

Rory rolls her eyes. "It's Michel." She says to Lorelai, and hands her the phone.

"Hello?...No…come on, it's my day off!...Fine…I said I'll do it Michel…yes, I'll be right there." And she hangs up. "Uhg."

"He wants you to come to the Inn?" Rory asks.

"Yeah, some problem with the plumbing, again. I don't see why he can't just do it himself."

"Because he's Michel."

Lorelai sighs. "I guess I'd better go. You go shopping for move-supplies. I'll see you tonight." She kisses Rory on the head and she's out.

* * *

Jess walks out of Luke's, and as he walks by Doose's, he sees Rory inside, so he decides to wait outside.  
When Rory walks out of the store she right away sees Jess, and smiles. "Hey." She says as she walks up to him. 

Jess glances at the junk food filled bag Rory's holding. "Feeding the weight-watchers rejects?"

"Movie-night with my mom."

"Ah." Jess nods understanding.  
They start walking and come by a poster of the Dance Marathon.

"Hey the Dance Marathon is already in one moth!" Rory says excited.

"Goodie." Jess says sarcastically.

"What, it's fun!"

"Yeah nothing says fun like dancing on annoying music with sore feet 24 hours straight."

"My mom participates every year. She's been trying to win from Kirk for the last five years, but he somehow always wins. And then he keeps showing off his trophy until it eventually gets stolen." Rory chuckles.

"Sounds just dandy."

"Well I'm going. To watch, not participate." Rory looks at Jess, who doesn't respond. "What's with you?" She asks.

"What do you mean?"

"You seem mad or something."

"Huh."

"Jess come on." Rory stops in front of him. "What's going on?"

"Nothing." He shrugs.

"This is about what happened earlier isn't it?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"I don't want to get back together with Dean if that's what you're thinking."

"Well you two did seem _awfully_ close."

Rory sighs frustrated. "Jess don't be like this."

"Like what."

"You're acting all jealous."

"I'm not."

"Jess, Dean was in my life for two years!"

"I never said anything."

"Fine, whatever! Be like that!" Rory sighs again, and stalks off towards her house.  
Jess looks at her for a few seconds before turning around and walking off in the opposite direction.

OOOOOOOO

Rory walks into the house, slamming the door behind her.  
Stupid Jess. He was always being so jealous of Dean, even though there was clearly nothing to be jealous of.  
She sighs frustrated as she flops onto the couch.  
Well at least he didn't lose his temper and jump to conclusions like Dean always did.  
The phone rings. "Hello?" She says when she picks up.

"You never believe who just called!" Lane says excited, hiding in her closet.

"Okay, uh, let me guess, Dave?"

"Dave!" Lane squeals.

"Aw, that's great, what did he say?"

"Well he just called to say hi! Isn't that just amazing? Him, calling me, to say hi!"

"Yeah that's really amazing!" Rory laughs.

"Okay I gotta go now, coz I already used up my five minutes with _Dave_, but I just had to tell you!"

"Okay, bye Lane."

"Bye." And she hangs up.

"Was that Lane?" Lorelai asks, suddenly sitting next to Rory.

"God! Where did you come from?"

Lorelai grins. "I snuck up behind you while you were on the phone."

"Evil woman!"

"So I rented those movies." She holds up three video's.

"_Ghost_?" Rory asks skeptically.

"Yeah I was standing there with _Thelma & Louise_ in my hand, when I saw _Ghost_, and it hit me! I was totally craving a Patrick Swayze movie!"

"You just wanted to see the claying scene."

"Dirty child, that's something only _you_ would think."

Rory sighs. "Okay let's just start the movie."

Lorelai frowns. "Already? We haven't even decided on take-out. Is everything okay?"

"Yeah I'm just…Jess and I had a fight."

"A fight?"

"Well not really a fight, but he was being jealous of Dean and he just kept denying it so I got mad and stormed off."

"Did he have a right to be jealous?"

"No, he was just looking too much into the whole hug thing."

"Oh…"

"I mean I guess I sort of get the jealous thing, but he just doesn't get that I care about Dean without being in love with him."

"Well honey, maybe explaining it would help." Lorelai says with a smile.

"You're too funny. Now let's just focus on take-out okay?"

"Okay, whatever." Lorelai says as she gets up to get the take-out folders.

* * *

Rory enters Luke's in her Chilton uniform and her yellow backpack on. She looks around, not seeing Jess, who she hadn't spoken since the "fight". She sighs and goes up to the counter, where she drops her backpack and sits down on a barstool. "Hey Luke." She says as Luke walks up to her. 

"Hey Rory. What can I get you?"

"Coffee would be great."

"Really, nothing _else_?" Luke asks hopeful.

Rory gives him a sympathetic smile. "You just keep trying don't you?"

"Well someone has to look out for your health, I mean, you're mother certainly doesn't."

"Just give me the coffee." Rory says with a grin.

Jess enters the diner, and starts heading upstairs, not seeing Rory.

"Jess!" Luke stops him. Jess turns around. "You're shift started ten minutes ago, where were you?" He demands.

"Just out." Jess replies with a shrug.

"Fine, get to work." Luke says and he goes to a table to bring the customers their order.

Jess ignores Luke's orders, and walks up to Rory with his hands in his pockets. "Hey."

Rory puts her coffee down. "Hi."

"So…are you mad?" He asks when he sees Rory's expressionless face.

"Of what, you being jealous unjustified?"

Jess sighs. "Yeah…"

"I'm not mad." She says and looks down as she takes a sip of her coffee.

"You are." Jess states.

"Well yeah, you totally overreacted over nothing!"

"I didn't even say anything."

"You didn't have to."

Jess leans closer on his arms. "Look, I'm sorry, I know there's really nothing going on between you two…I just tend to do the jealous thing when I see you with him…It goes together with the whole me hating him bit."

Rory smiles slightly. "I know. But you have to trust me, there's really nothing to be jealous about."

Jess nods. "Okay…so…are we good?"

"Yeah we're good." Rory says with a genuine smile this time.

"Good." And he leans in to kiss her. "I gotta work." He says as he pulls back.

"Jup." She says with a nod. "And I'm supposed to meet Lane. So, I'll see you later." And she gets up after finishing a coffee. She gives Jess another kiss and she walks out.

* * *

**A/N:** I'm sorry if this chapter is a bit crappy, but I've just been busy with …well…not really much. But school's out, so I tend to get really really lazy and do nothing but sleep all day and watch Gilmore Girls or read fanfiction…  
But I actually already have a few good idea's for what's going to happen later on, even though you might hate me for it…damn, I just practically told you what's going to happen didn't I? Aw crap…I mean, the you hating me for something usually equals you hating me for…that thing…that I'm not gonna say in case you didn't guess already… 


	8. Chapter 8

Hey, I'm sorry it took so long for me to update. I was in lack of inspiration and also, a teeny tiny bit lazy!

I "stole" some ideas from the actual episodes, but I changed it to fit my story of course.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything

So on with it…

**Chapter Eight**

"Mom?" Rory calls as she enters the house. She walks into the living room and finds her mom on the couch, who quickly turns off the TV and turns around with teary eyes, trying to look innocent.

"Oh hey, Rory! You're early!"

Rory frowns at her mother. "What were you watching?" She asks suspiciously.

"Nothing! Absolutely nothing!" Lorelai puts on a grin that's a little too enthusiastic.

"You were watching _Love Story _again weren't you?" Rory asks as she sits down next to Lorelai on the couch.

"No, not at all."

Rory just looks at her.

"Fine, okay, you've caught me." Lorelai sighs. "I can't help it if that movie is so addictive."

Rory pats her on the back sympathetically. "Poor lonely woman."

"Hey! I'm not lonely! I'm the complete opposite of lonely!"

Rory smiles. "Okay, whatever you say. So, you did you find a dance partner?"

Lorelai sighs frustrated. "No. None of the options I was considering are right. One's too tall, the other one too short, the other has two left feet…you get my point right?"

"I do. But hey, you've still got two weeks to come up with a partner."

"I know. So, are you going to compete with me in the battle?"

"I don't think so. I was thinking of dragging Jess out to come sit and watch, although I don't think he'll want to come…anyway, I'm just gonna watch."

Lorelai nods. After a few seconds of silence, she turns _Love Story_ back on.

* * *

Rory and Jess walk over the town square in each others arms, kissing as if their lives depend on it. They stop at the gazebo, and Rory leans against the arm of the steps. Jess moves his lips from Rory's mouth to her neck, so Rory sees the opportunity to talk. 

"You know the Dance Marathon is coming up, right?"

"Huh." Jess manages to get out in between kisses.

"I thought we could go, and watch."

Jess shortly lifts his head to look at Rory. "Nope." He says and presses his lips on hers.

Rory moves her head, so Jess continues on her neck again. "It'll be fun! There'll be funny dancing, the traditional fight between Andrew and his wife, Taylor getting punch-drunk at the end and he starts telling stories about his days as a magician. Oh, and when Kirk wins, he likes to do a victory lap on the theme of Rocky."

Jess sighs and faces Rory. "I don't go to these stupid town things."

"Well you went to the bid-a-basket festival, you went to the lazy-hazy-crazy-wacky-whatever day…"

"That was when I trying to get you, I now have you which means I don't have to go anymore."

"Come on Jess." Rory pouts. "You wouldn't want me sitting there all alone all day would you?"

"If you don't like sitting alone, don't go. I can think of a much better way to spend a Saturday…" He raises his eyebrow suggestively.

"Please?" Rory asks with puppy eyes.

Jess smirks, and then sighs. "Okay, maybe –and I mean _maybe_- I'll stop by. But then only for a little while."

Rory smiles at her victory. "Thank you, you won't regret it."

"Oh, I think I will." Jess smirks, and leans in to kiss her again.

During the kiss Rory sees Dean walking by from the corner of her eye, he doesn't see them though, but Rory immediately breaks away from Jess.

"What?"

"Nothing." Rory says, carefully glancing at Dean's direction. Jess follows her gaze, and sighs annoyed when he sees Dean walking towards Doose's.

"You're kidding right?" He asks.

"It's just…I don't like flaunting it in front of him."

"It's been nearly two months, Rory."

"I know, but I just – I hurt him so bad, and I feel guilty to flaunt it."

"And just now we weren't all over town flaunting it? He's a big boy Rory, I think he can handle seeing a couple kissing."

"Please, let's not flaunt it around him?" Rory pleads.

Jess sighs and looks away. "For how long?"

"I don't know, I guess until it's comfortable."

"Fine."

"Thank you." They start walking in the direction of the diner, and Jess puts his arm around her waist.

* * *

"I can't believe that stupid guy's wife thought I wanted to sleep with him! Ew! I can't even think about it! Ugh, and now who will I get to be my dance partner?" Lorelai whines during the car ride home from Friday night dinner at her parents'. 

"Uhm, you can always ask Luke?" Rory suggests with a smile.

Lorelai scoffs. "Yeah right! Luke! I can already see him tripping all over me with his two left feet!"

"Hey it was just a suggestion."

They stay silent for a few seconds, before a brilliant thought hits Lorelai, and she grins evilly at Rory. "I know!"

Rory glances at her mother, and then makes big eyes. "Don't even think about it!"

"Come on!"

"Forget it!"

"Just hear me out. First of all, you love me." Lorelai starts.

"Not right at this moment, I don't."

"You know how much this contest means to me."

"I do _not_ dance!"

"It'll be so much fun! We'll get all dressed up, and you're light – easy to hold up when you get tired."

"Mom." Rory gives her mother a warning glare, which she chooses to ignore.

"Plus, we got that whole mother/daughter gimmick going for us. The crowd'll eat that up!"

"I cannot dance with you."

"Why not?"

"Because…Me and Jess were gonna watch and hang out, he's totally looking forward to it!" Rory lies.

Lorelai chuckles. "Yeah right, Jess actually looking forward to a town thing, I can see it now!"

"Okay, he wasn't looking forward to it, but he _was_ gonna come!"

"Was he really?"

"Well…he said maybe."

"Okay see, there's no problem! You tell him not to come, and we'll be rid of him, and you can dance with me!" Lorelai says with a big grin.

Rory sighs. "Okay, I'll tell you what. I was supposed to work on the Franklin this weekend, with Paris."

"But?" Lorelai asks hopefully.

"I will ask her if we can reschedule. If she says yes, then I will dance with you." Rory says with a big sigh, already knowing Paris will say yes, because she was planning on going on a date with Jamie.

"Oh, I love ya!" Lorelai exclaims happily.

"You should sell cars." Rory says, crossing her arms and sinking deeper in her car seet.

"I should, shouldn't I? Hello, big fancy trophy!"

* * *

Lane and Rory enter the diner, and they sit down at a table in the corner. "So, you called Dave? How very brave of you." Rory says. 

"Yeah, I called, but I wasn't brave, seeing as I hung up every time he answered."

"Hey, don't worry about that, that's all normal. I used to hang up on Dean and Jess all the time."

"I was just _so_ nervous!"

"How did he sound? Cheery, depressed, annoyed…?"

"I don't know, I guess it was sort of a mixture between normal and plane." Lane says sarcastically.

"You know what I mean, did it sound like he was doing something really fun, like let's say, a date, or did it sound like he was doing nothing special?"

Lane makes big eyes. "Oh my god, you think he was on a date?"

"I don't know, you tell me."

"Well…I thought I heard Quadrophenia on the background…"

"Very classy, but not date-like." Rory states with a nod.

"You think?" Lane asks with a grin slowly appearing on her face.

"Defnitely."

Jess comes over to their table. "Hey." He says to Rory as he quickly kisses her. "Lane." He says to Lane with a nod.

"Jess." Lane says somewhat coolly.

Rory nudges Lane.

"I mean, Hi Jess!" Lane says with an exaggerated sweet smile.

Jess smirks, and takes his ordering pad ready. "You guys ready to order?"

"Uhm…I'll have a cheeseburger, and some fries, and coffee." Rory says.

"Same, but without the coffee." Lane says.

"Okay." Jess goes to Caesar to give the order, and returns to Rory's table and sits down next to her, putting his arm around her waist.

"So Jess, what are you gonna do now that Rory's dancing with her mother?" Lane asks.

Jess shrugs. "Same as always."

"Which is…?"

"Sleep, eat, read…stuff one does in its daily routine."

"You're not gonna come to the Dance Marathon?" Rory frowns at him.

"Well since you're dancing with your mom I don't really feel like sitting there all alone." Jess says with a smirk, as she repeats Rory's words from earlier.

Lane turns to Rory. "You know, I heard Dean's participating too."

"Really, how very interesting. With who?" Rory says, playing along with Lane. Of course they already talked about Dean coming earlier.

"That girl Lindsay. I saw their names on the sign-up list."

"You know, I never liked her." Rory nods, trying to keep from smiling at Jess' confused look, which disappears as quickly as it came.

"You know what, on second thought I think I just might come." Jess says, trying to sound casual.

"Really?" Rory asks skeptically, trying to hide a smirk.

Jess rolls his eyes. "Yeah, it's not like I can't read there."

Rory and Lane share a knowing look.

* * *

"Rooooryyy." Lorelai says very softly as she kneels down beside Rory's bed. "Waky waky." 

Rory mumbles something and turns over.

"Rise and shine!" Lorelai says, now a little louder.

"Too early…"

"What are you talking about? It's already four AM! Only two hours to get ready!"

"Leave me alone." Rory says, as she sits straight, rubbing her eyes sleepily. "Why are you up already?"

"I set the alarm."

Rory sighs deeply. "Why on earth would you do that?"

"Dance Marathon, starts at six, you have to look all forties like, takes a while to get ready…sound familiar?"

"That was today?" Rory asks, pretending to not remember. She slowly gets up from her bed. She sits down on a chair, grabs a brush, and tries to lift her arm to comb her hair. "Can't…reach…"

Lorelai grabs the brush from her. "Let's get dressed first, okay? That way you don't mess up your hair while trying to change clothes."

"Fine, fine…can I get coffee first?"

"No coffee, get ready!"

"I'm not so sure I like this new attitude of yours, mom."

**

* * *

A/N** Okay I'm stopping here, because I'm going on vacation tomorrow, and I need to leave you guys with something right? Right. So, the next time I'll be able to update won't be for at least a week, so be patient!

Also, this chapter really wasn't one of my best work, but next will be better, because I already know what's going to happen there.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N:** Hey guys, I'm back from vacation! I was in Crete and it was just…amazing. Like, wow! I wish I could live there instead of this stupid rainy, crowded town I live in now…Yeah…well…  
Anyway, sorry for letting you wait a week longer than said before…I was just being my lazy-assed-self…

Thank you soooooooo much for the reviews! I know I don't really thank you enough for them, but I'm always so happy with them! I love reviews, it lets me know my work is being appreciated, so Thanks!

Disclaimer: Yeah, I own nothing, sadly.

**Chapter Nine**

After getting a cup of coffee from Luke's coffee stand, Lorelai and Rory, both looking like women of the 40's, move to the dance floor. Lorelai excuses herself as she goes to talk to Sookie and Jackson. Rory looks around a bit, and she spots Dean and Lindsay. Rory smiles a little amused at the sight Dean's hair gelled tightly to his head for the occasion. She hesitates, but then decides to walk over. "Hey Dean, hi Lindsay." She says, trying to sound as nice as possible.

"Oh, hi." Dean says when he sees her, and smiles awkwardly.

"Hi Rory, uhm, how are you?" Lindsay asks, smiling as awkward as Dean.

"I'm good, a little tired from the getting up at four in the morning, but I'm good…you?"

"Oh, I'm fine."

"Good."

"Uhm, I'm going to see if the coffee is ready." Lindsay says to Dean after an uncomfortable silence. "Bye Rory." And she leaves, leaving Rory and Dean standing there awkwardly.

"So…uh, Lindsay's your girlfriend?" Rory asks.

"Uh, yeah, I guess, we've been going out for two weeks." Dean answers with a nod.

"Good, that's good. I'm glad you've got someone."

"Yeah, Lindsay's great."

Rory nods, and another uncomfortable silence follows.  
"Uh, so, I didn't know you were the dancing type." Rory finally says.

"Oh I'm not, but Lindsay really wanted to participate, so…"

"Oh."

Then Taylor announces that the dancing begins in one minute.

"Well, I'd better go find my mom." Rory says.

"Yeah, I'll see you later."

Rory walks to her mother, who was just looking for her.

"Oh there you are!" Lorelai says, and she takes Rory's hands.

They all start counting down from ten to one, and as soon as the clock hits six o' clock, Taylor blows his horn, and the band starts playing and everyone starts dancing, doing funny flips and lifting each other _Grease_ style.

* * *

Around 2 in the afternoon Jess comes in, walking straight through the dance floor, ignoring Taylor's "Unauthorized person on the dance floor!" Through his megaphone.  
He stops at Lorelai and Rory, who are still dancing somewhat energetic. "Hey there." He says, and both girls look at him.

"Hey." Rory says with a big smile.

"Hey Jess." Lorelai says with a polite smile. After the whole possible pregnancy fiasco she'd wanted to kill Jess and make sure Rory stayed away from him, but Rory had made her promise to be nice to Jess. Or at least, remotely polite.

"Hi." Jess says with a nod to Lorelai. "So how's it going?"

"We're having a great time!" Rory says excitedly. "Although my feet are starting to get sore."

"Already? We still have a long way to go missy! And there's no way I'm letting Kirk win this time!" Lorelai says.

"I know, I know."

"Okay, well you dance, I'll be over there." Jess points with his thumb to the benches.

"Okay see ya." Rory smiles.

* * *

After the horrible run-around the break started, and Rory and Lorelai part ways, so Rory walks over to Jess, and drops down next to him. She stretches her legs and let's out an exhausted sigh. "My feet are dead, and we're only halfway through! How did I ever let my mom talk me into this?" 

"Yeah, uh, speaking of mother's…" Jess starts without looking at Rory.

Rory sits straight and looks at him. "What about 'em?"

"My mom called, saying that she wants me to move back, that she wants us to try to be 'a family'." He says with an annoyed tone.

"And what did you say?" Rory asks with a little worry in her voice.

"Well nothing, because she was on the machine, but she said to think about it. But there's nothing to think about, coz I'm not going."

"You're not?"

"Nah, I mean, she says she wants to try again, but after a week or so it doesn't seem to be working out the way she wants and she gives up. It's happened too many times. I mean, I do miss the city sometimes, but there's too much keeping me here."

"Oh yeah, like what?" Rory asks with a knowing smile.

"Well like uh…well mostly, just you." Jess says, and finally looks her in the eyes.

Rory chuckles, and leans closer to kiss him. Then she grabs his hand, "Come on." She says while tiredly getting up. "Let's get something to eat."  
They walk to Lane and her mom's stand with the sandwiches in _Miss Patty's_, and come across Dean.  
"Hey Dean, I thought you and Lindsay were out?"

"Yeah we were, but we decided to come back to see who ends up winning." Dean answers, just as Lindsay comes up behind him. She sees Rory and Jess, and apparently she remembered why she was supposed to hate Rory, and she gives them a dirty look.

"Come on Dean, let's get a soda." She says, dragging Dean away with her.

Jess looks at Rory, who has a confused look on her face. "Who was that?" He asks with a frown.

"Uh, Dean's new girlfriend, Lindsay. I don't get it, she was nice before."

Before Jess can say something, Lane comes from behind the sandwich-stand, and drags Rory away to where she thinks they're out of earshot from Jess. "Lindsay is Dean's girlfriend?" She asks.

"Yeah." Rory nods.

"And…you're okay with this?"

"Sure…"

Lane hears Rory's unsure tone, and frowns skeptically. "Are you really, coz somehow I'm not convinced."

Rory sighs. "I guess I should be, I mean, it would be hypocritical of me to not be, but I just…I guess I just never thought of Dean moving on, or, so soon at least."

"So basically you just expected him to pine away over you forever."

"Well, not forever…I just never thought about it, I'm just a little surprised that's all."

"You're not jealous are you? I mean, you don't still have feelings for Dean, right?"

"What? No! No, no, no way, I have Jess!"

"Okay, just checking." Lane smiles.

"Well I'd better be getting back, the break's almost over." Rory says, and she waves at Lane, and walks back to Jess, who looks pensive.  
He'd heard the entire conversation, and the worried thoughts he had about Rory still loving Dean, just got worse.

"What's wrong?" Rory asks.

"Huh? Oh, nothing, let's go."

Rory grabs two sandwiches, and they go back to the dance floor to meet with Lorelai.

* * *

It's hour 23, and Jess still there, as well as Dean and Lindsay. Jess hadn't missed Rory's frequent glances towards them, and he was getting more and more sure of Rory still loving Dean. He was beginning to think that he maybe he should just go back to New York, and leave them to get back together without him standing in the way, or having to witness it. But he couldn't do that, he loved Rory. But still…did she love him back?  
He stares at Rory and Lorelai "dancing" half asleep. He sees Lorelai stumbling, and saying something about her heel breaking, but it doesn't register with him until she looks over at him and calls him. He puts his book away and slowly walks over. "Is there a problem?" 

"Here." Lorelai says, and puts Rory's arms around Jess' shoulders. "Whatever you do, keep her moving and _don't_ let her fall down! I have to fix my shoe, I'll be back in ten minutes!" And she hurries off to find Luke to fix her shoe.

Jess wraps his arms tightly around Rory, pulling her closer. "Hey." He says.

Rory, suddenly more awake in Jess' arms, looks up and smiles. "Hey, you're still here. Aren't you bored?"

He shrugs. "Nah, I got my book, so I'm set."

"Good." Rory leans closer, and they kiss. Then Rory rests her head on Jess' should, as they move to the music as slowly as possible.  
She looks at Dean and Lindsay, sitting on a bench, and laughing over something. She sighs. What was Dean doing with her? She didn't seem like his type at all. Not like she saw herself as his type, or, maybe she did, but he wasn't her own type, that's for sure. She preferred her men a little more intelligent…a little rough on the edges…like say, Jess? But still, it somehow bothered her seeing Dean with this new girl. "They're still here."

"Who?" Jess asks, already knowing the answer.

"Dean and Lindsay. Why would they still be here? This marathon isn't _that_ interesting."

"I'm still here too, remember?"

"Yeah but-"

"-Rory…" Jess sighs. "Just don't pay attention to them."

"Right." She stay silent for a second, looking a bit sour. "Do you think she's pretty?"

"What?" Jess asks incredulously.

"I mean, she's got this whole Barbie look going on, she doesn't seem his type."

"Right, unlike you."

"Huh?" Rory looks at Jess confused. "What do you mean?"

"Come on Rory, all day you've been staring at them, it's like you're jealous!"

"I'm not…why would I be jealous?"

He sighs. "Can we talk over there?" Jess asks, pointing towards a more private spot, not wanting to make a scene.

"What about the contest?"

"Forget the stupid contest!" Jess says a little too loudly, starting to really get annoyed.

Rory nods, a little taken aback bye Jess' outburst, which caused a few people (including Dean) to look up, and follows him off the dance floor, causing Taylor to protest and yelling something through his megaphone, but she doesn't listen.  
"What's wrong?" She asks worriedly.

"I think you know." Jess says, about to burst.

"Not really, enlighten me."

"Don't play dumb Rory, it's so obvious, I don't know why you even went out with me in the first place!"

"What's obvious!" Rory asks, already knowing where this conversation is going, and really getting agitated by it.

"Oh come on, you're acting all jealous over Barbie there, you keep staring, and you always talk about 'still caring about him', you're obviously still in love with Dean!" Jess says, raising his voice.

"What? I cannot believe you just said that!" Rory starts yelling too.

"Why, coz it's true?"

"You are seriously nowhere _near_ the truth!"

"You know what, fine! Keep denying it! I'm not going to wait around 'til you run back into his arms, I might as well move back to New York!"

"You are _so_ unbelievable! Fine, go! Run away, see if I care!"

"Fine!" And with that, they both storm off in the opposite direction.

* * *

Damn him, damn him, damn him! Why was he being so…so…Dean-ish! How could he ever even think she was still in love with Dean? Okay, yeah, there was _some_ staring, and that stuff about Lindsay certainly didn't help much, but wasn't she allowed to be a _little_ thrown by her ex-boyfriend having a new girlfriend? Then again, before tonight, there also had been some stuff that could've looked like something…but no, Jess should know better. He should trust her. And what was that stuff about going back to New York about anyway, he wasn't seriously thinking about moving back, right?   
Suddenly Rory hears her feet stomping over wooden planks, and she notices she's at the bridge. Frustrated with the whole situation she sits down and throws her feet over the edge.  
So what, did they break up just now? She wasn't sure what exactly happened. He was jealous, making assumptions, and all of the sudden, he was moving? Right…  
She hears footsteps approaching, and immediately thinks it's Jess, and she deliberately doesn't look up. 

"Hey."

She looks up surprised to hear Dean's voice. "Hey…what are you doing here?"

"I uh, I followed you…I saw –and heard- what happened in there, and I just thought you might wanted to…I don't know, talk? Are you okay?" Dean asks, sitting down next to her.

A little surprised at Dean's sudden interest in her, she shrugs. "I don't know. I'm still processing what exactly happened…"

Dean nods, and they stay silent for a while.

"You know, earlier, I was thinking…" Dean starts, and they both look up. "Does your offer on being friends still stand?"

"Uh, yeah, sure." Rory says surprised.

"Good, coz I was thinking on taking you up on it." Dean says with a smile.

"Oh, okay good…so we're friends?" Rory asks. She had the feeling that somehow her fight with Jess, and him having a new girlfriend had something to do with this.

Dean nods, smiling. "Yeah."

* * *

After walking aimlessly around town for a while, calming down, Jess was starting to think that maybe he overreacted a little. Shit, he was acting just like Dean. All jealous and obnoxious. Maybe hearing Rory's side of this whole thing out was a better idea than jumping to conclusions. But still…he was so sure he was right about this. For one thing, Dean definitely still loved Rory.  
Jess sighs, and decides to look for Rory. He goes to the first place he can think of, the bridge.  
But before he steps onto the wood, he sees Rory sitting there with Dean, removing all doubts Jess had about them before. Figures. "That is it." Jess inaudibly mumbles to himself, and turns around and walks away. 

When he arrives at the diner, he right away starts packing his duffel bag with some clothes, cd's and books. He looks around to see if there's anything more he needs. He glances at the clock. Already 5:30. The Dance would be over soon, and he didn't feel like confronting Luke, so he just scribbled down a note saying _"Moved back to Liz. Check the answering machine."_ That last part so that he'd hear Liz's message from earlier.  
Then he walks outside, to the bus stop, hoping there would be a bus that came this early. He sits down on the bench, and grabs his book from his back pocket and starts reading.

Fifteen minutes later, the bus to New York arrives, screeching to a halt. Jess gets up, hesitating only a second, before getting on.

* * *

Lorelai has her arm around Rory as they walk home. When Lorelai came back, having fixed her shoe, she saw no Rory, and Kirk screaming about winning. She asked Patty about what happened, but just then Rory came running into her arms, obviously upset about something. 

"Are you okay babe?" Lorelai asks.

"I'm not sure…maybe. No. I'm not okay." Rory sighs deeply.

"Are you going to fill me in on what happened, or do I have to hear about it from some hitchhiker, who by accident came in this town but got caught in the gossip-chain just the same."

Another sigh. "Jess and I got into the most horrible fight of my life and we both just stormed off and now I'm not sure whether we broke up or not or of he's moving back or not or-"

"Whoa, slow down honey, start with the beginning."

"Well okay, I was just a little thrown because of Dean's new girlfriend,"

"Understandable."

"Right, I thought so too, but then when I was dancing with Jess after you left, I guess I sorta went off about her against Jess."

"Ai, bad idea." Lorelai says with a scowl.

"What do you mean?"

"Well you know how Dean is Jess' only weakness. You know, because of the whole, you refusing to break up with him, even though there was clearly something going on between you and Jess, and that kiss at Sookie's wedding didn't really help and –"

"- okay I get it, thank you." Rory rolls her eyes. "Anyway, so he said we had to talk, and then he said I still love Dean which is clearly not true and-"

"- is it?"

"You have to stop interrupting me if you want to hear the rest of the story!"

"I just mean, how are you so sure if it's _clearly_ not true for Jess." Lorelai reasons.

"_Moving on_, then we just started yelling at each other, and then he said he was going to move back to New York because he didn't want to see me and Dean get back together and that's about when we both took off."

"Uh oh, not good."

Rory sighs. "I know." They enter the house. "So, how bad do you think it is?"

"Well, there seems to be a lot of damage done…but I strongly suggest talking to him, sort it all out."

"You don't think he'll really move away do you?" Rory asks scared.

"I don't know…again I say, talk to him."

Rory yawns. "Okay."

"You're right, yawn, let's sleep, tiredness suddenly taking over me…" Lorelai says tiredly.

"Good idea, sleep, lots and lots of sleep…"

They head for their bedrooms. "Nighty night."

**

* * *

A/N: **Okay so, first of all, DON'T KILL ME! I was just trying to spice things up a bit with the drama!  
Second, just so you know, this well definitely, _definitely_ NOT become a narco, coz Dean's just…ew…that's just wrong, those two together…Ack, bad mental image! Ew, get it out!

Okay, so I really hope you'll stick around with me for the next few chapters coz there may be some stuff you won't like…you know, like this chapter…


	10. Chapter 10

Eek! I am sooo sorry for letting you wait this long! I apologize from the bottom of my soul and heart! But, I was on vacation…again…but I'm back now, and I'll try to update a little sooner next time!

But hey, thank you soooooooooo much for all your reviews! I can't believe I crossed that 100 line! Wooohooo! I'm completely jazzed! What about you mister potato? "I'm completely Jazzed too." Exactly my friends…Ahem…anyway, Thank you for reviewing, and please keep it going because I love it!

Disclaimer: After all this time, no, I still do not own a thing!

**Chapter Ten**

"Oh my god! Thank you!" Lorelai cries as she stumbles to a chair in the diner and sits down. It was the Monday after the dance marathon, and she and Rory just got up for work and school, after sleeping the entire day to recover from the contest.

"I never realized Luke's was a hundred miles away." Rory complains, while she sits down on a chair at a different table from Lorelai's, not noticing she sat there, because she's too busy looking around frantically for Jess.

"We're lucky it wasn't snowing. It would've been the Donner Party all over again, but only with slightly better hair." Lorelai hangs her coat over the back of her chair. Then she notices where Rory's sitting, and laughs a little. "Why are you sitting over there?"

"Where?" Rory asks, still not realizing where she sits while fidgeting nervously with her sleeve. She had to talk to Jess. She had to know where they stood, because right now, she wasn't sure whether they broke up or if it was just a big fight.

"At that table."

"Huh." Rory says, finally snapping back to reality. "How did I get here?"

"You sat there." Lorelai explains matter-of-factly.

"Well, this chair is very close to that chair, so you understand how I could've made the mistake."

"Move over here with me."

"Why don't you move over here with me?"

"Because I'm not the one who sat in the wrong chair." Lorelai says like it's the most logical thing in the world.

"I think it's a little presumptuous to assume that my chair is the wrong chair when my chair could just as easily be the right chair.

"No."

"Why?"

"Because I'm the leader of the clan, the provider of the household, the alpha male, and the one who's feet just fell asleep so there's absolutely no chance of movement." Lorelai says and points to the chair at her table while making clicking noises.

"Fine." Rory gives, and moves over to Lorelai's table.

"Thank you." Lorelai says in a sing-song voice. "See, it's nice sitting at the grown-up table, isn't it?"

"Uhuh." Rory says, but she's not really paying attention to what Lorelai said, and also doesn't notice when Kirk enters and starts bragging about his trophy he won at the Dance Marathon. She's worried about Jess. Why hadn't he come down yet? After all, he had to go to school too. Of course, he was always late, but still…shouldn't he be down already? …He wasn't gone, was he? Rory shakes that thought out of her head, knowing he wouldn't do that. She hears Lorelai ask something about getting pancakes and eggs, and glances at her watch. "I can't, I have to go." Rory says.

"What are you talking about? It's-" Lorelai gasps when she sees the time on Rory's watch. "It took us thirty minutes to get here?" She asks incredulously.

"Lot's of limping."

"Wow, shoot! Well, at least, grabs a donut before you go." Lorelai says, and they get up, and stumble tiredly to the counter. "Hey, unh, Luke, uh, we need a couple of donuts, and, uh, some of those extra legs Heather Mills is sending over to Croatia."

"Coming right up." Luke says, and gets them a donut.

Rory looks at the curtain leading to the staircase, expecting Jess to come out any second.  
"Luke?" She asks.

"Yeah?"

"Is uhm, Jess upstairs?" She asks.

Luke's face falls. "Ah jeez, he didn't tell you, did he! I'm gonna kill him!"

"What?" Rory asks timidly. She wasn't gonna like this.

Luke shifts uncomfortably. "Rory, he uh, he –aw man, how do I say this…Rory, he moved back to New York." He says with an apologetic look in his eyes.

Rory stares blankly at Luke, processing what was said, feeling her body go numb. "He –he moved?" She asks softly.

Lorelai looks from Rory at Luke. "He moved? He moved to New York? Back with Liz, your sister, to live there?"

"Yes."

"As in, forever?"

"I don't know."

"Why?"

"Again, I don't know. I came back from the Dance Marathon last morning, and I found a note on my fridge, saying that he moved back with his mom, and I should check the maching, where I found a message from Liz saying she wanted to try again with him, and that she changed!" Luke practically yells, his anger rising.

"Wow…" Lorelai turns to Rory, who is on the verge of tears. "And he didn't tell you?"

Rory slightly shakes her head. "I…I – I have to go to school." She says, and starts moving.

"Rory, maybe you should stay home, just for today." Lorelai says, but Rory's already out the door. She looks at her daughters retreating back with a sad look on her face. She turns back to Luke. "You really don't know why?"

"If I did, don't you think I would tell you?"

"Ohh!" Lorelai says like she realized something. "It's because of their fight!"

"What fight?"

"Rory and Jess had a huge fight about Dean."

"About Dean? When did this happen?"

"At the dance."

"Man, that's tough. So…they broke up?"

Lorelai shrugs. "Maybe Jess thinks they did."

Luke stares in space in shock before saying, "I'll try calling him."

* * *

Rory walks though the street, almost missing the bus stop because the tears make her eye-sight blurry. She drops down on the bench, still feeling numb. He moved. He left. He's gone, away, missing, lost, MIA…Is he really gone? Why is he gone? Why? Why? Yeah, so, they had a fight, he said he'd leave, but she never thought he really meant it, or act upon it right away. So it's over. It's over? Are they broken up? How could they be when she loved him so much? Did he not love her?  
Feeling her heart break, Rory furiously wipes away the tears on her face, but they keep coming. 

She hears a bus stopping and looks up. The bus to New York. Oh the temptation of getting on that bus to New York and bring Jess back…  
No. Not this time. She won't come after him again. They pain and humiliation of begging and getting rejected – He probably would reject her after all this- would be too much to handle. No.   
She sits deeper into the bench, and clamps her hands to the edge to stop herself from getting on that damn bus. If he doesn't think it's worth it, then neither does she.  
She knows that's a lie when she sees the bus driving off, and feels the regret of not getting on.

But then she makes a decision. She will not go after Jess. Or call him. No matter how much she wants to talk to him, and find out why he left. No matter how much she wants him to come back. She won't be the weaker one this time.  
Her bus for school stops in front of her, and she wipes the remaining tears away, and gets on.

* * *

Around 10, Jess wakes up with the smell of pancakes and coffee, and for a split second he thinks he's back at the diner, with Luke and Rory waiting just downstairs. But then he takes in the surroundings of his tiny room in New York. Feeling the disappointment wash over him, he gets out of bed and enters the small living room/kitchen, stuffed with furniture, and he sees his mother busy making breakfast.  
It's a strange sight. She didn't use to do this, but since he entered the house yesterday morning, feeling horribly depressed, Liz had been motherly and domestic. Well, she tried to be, anyway. She had been so happy he came 'home'; she hugged him and promised it'd be better from now on.  
She'd even cooked dinner that night. Mac & Cheese, but dinner no less. 

"Morning." Lez greets him with a cheery tone he holds as false, just because he's used to her being groggy and annoyed all the time. "Breakfast?" She asks.

"Sure." He says, and sits down at the table. She walks over with two plates of pancakes and puts them on the table next to the cups of fresh coffee, that tastes an awfully lot like Luke's.

Liz sits down in front of him, and eyes him suspiciously, as he quickly digs in.  
"Okay, I didn't asks yesterday, because you just got back, but why are you here?"

"Because you asked me to." Jess lies without looking up from his plate.

"No, try again."

Because his girlfriend was still in love with her ex. "I just hated that place." He says instead, trying to keep his face empty from emotions.

"Then why'd to go back there before?"

Jess shrugs, and turns his attention back to his plate.

"Jess-"

"-Look I don't wanna talk about it, okay!" He snaps.

Liz sees the hurt in his eyes, even though he tries to hide it, and decides she'd talk to him about it later. "Okay." She says softly.

Jess lowers his head, and looks at the coffee mug in front of him. It reminds him of Rory, like almost everything seems to do. She loves coffee. She and her mother. Everyday they'd come in the diner and demand 'their elixir of life', as they call it. Damn her. She and Dean were probably already back together, happy he was out of the way. She won't miss him. He won't miss her either. That was a lie. He will miss her. So fucking much. But it's better than having to see her go back to _him_, breaking his heart and running it over with a bulldozer in the process. Actually, he's heartbroken already, but he'll never admit it. Not even to himself.

* * *

School had gone over in a daze, and when the last bell rang, Rory had no idea what classes she went to, or what they were about.  
Paris walks up to her, followed by Madeline and Louise as usual, and starts talking to her about some kind of meeting or what not. But when Paris stops walking, expecting Rory to do the same, she just keeps on walking, ignoring –or just not noticing- Paris' objecting yells that contain sentences like "Hey don't you walk away from me!" and, "I know where you live, Gilmore!"

* * *

Getting off the bus, Rory looks at Luke's diner, and fresh tears start to well up, but she bites them back like she'd done all day. She starts heading home, but turns around when she hears someone calling her name.  
She doesn't see anybody. 

"Rory!" It's coming from the bushes, which can only mean one thing. Lane.

Rory walks over. "Hey Lane."

Lane reaches out and pulls her into the bushes.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm not supposed to leave the house, God knows why, so I can't be seen."

"Oh."

"Oh Rory, I just heard! I mean, I knew about the fight since that happened pretty publicly so how can you not know in Stars Hallow, but I can't believe he left!"

One tear manages to get through as Rory lowers her head.

Lane pulls her into a hug. "How are you holding up?"

"Fine." Rory says very unconvincingly as more tears fall.

Lane glances at her house. "Okay, I gotta get back before Mama Kim starts her every 20 minute check-up, and I have to climb the tree, then the gutters, and hope I don't fall down before getting a chance to cling onto the window." She rambles apologetically.

Rory nods sadly.

"But I promise, when I'm allowed back out, we're gonna do some major wallowing!"

Rory gives her a tiny smile, and Lane hugs her again before stealthily sneaking out of the bushes.

* * *

"Rory is that you?" Lorelai calls as Rory enters the house. She hurries to the hall and sees Rory standing there with tears slowly rolling down her face. "I wanted to be here when you came back, so I took the rest of the day off." 

Rory sobs, and Lorelai quickly takes her in her arms. "Oh, Rory." She says, stroking her back softly. "Should I get ice cream and more comfort food for a serious wallow-fest?"

"No, I just – want to be alone right now." Rory gets out in between sobs, and she releases herself from Lorelai's embrace.

"Are you sure?" Lorelai asks worriedly.

Rory nods, and goes to her room.

* * *

"Luke! I'm in serious need of coffee!" Lorelai says as she dramatically throws herself on a stool at the counter, followed by Rory, who's looking slightly nervous. 

Luke comes up to them, right away noticing Rory's presence, and he pours them boths a cup of coffee. "Hi Rory." He says.

Rory, who is desperately trying not to stare at the curtain by staring into her coffee instead, looks up. "Oh, hi Luke."

"Uh, how are you?" He asks carefully.

"Fine, just – fine." Rory says, and she turns back to staring in her coffee.

Lorelai had been observing Rory, and now declares their 'conversation' as over, and decides to break the awkward silence. "So you'll never believe the day I've had!" She pauses to see of she's got their attention. "First Michel is all over me 'coz I was two minutes late and he had to answer the phone himself, even though that's his job. Then Sookie's not paying attention and almost sets half the kitchen on fire, and to top it all off, while trying to put the fire out, I burned my favorite Betty Boop oven mittens!"

"Yes, that _is_ a tragedy." Luke deadpans.

"What were your oven mittens doing at the Inn?" Rory asks.

"Well I brought them in one day to cheer Lenny, one of Sookie's assistants, up. Did you know, he shares my love for Betty _and _he can cook? Sometimes I really wish he wasn't gay." Lorelai sighs and leans her head in her hands.

Rory chuckles. "But who knows, maybe he'll change his ways for you!"

"Hm, yeah you're right! I'll put on my special Gilmore charm next time."

"Well, I'd better get home; I've got a ton of homework to do." Rory says, getting up. "I'll see you later." She kisses Lorelai's head and heads for the door.

"Yeah, have fun, sweets!" Lorelai calls after her, and turns to Luke.

"So, how's she doing?" Luke asks, the concern evident in his voice.

"Better, I guess. I mean, she's not spending so much alone time in her room anymore, I think she's slowly starting to move on."

"Well, good. At least she finally came back to the diner."

Lorelai nods. "Yeah, she was trying to get out of it again, but I said to her: 'Rory, it's been a week, enough is enough, those extra coffee's to-go are getting heavy to carry!' And she came with me, just like that."

Luke frowns. "Really?"

"Yup."

"You actually confronted her about it?" He asks skeptically.

"That's right."

Luke stares blankly at her.

"Fine, it was her idea to go, whatever, it's just the same! Jeez, you don't have to look that unbelieving at me. You make it seem like I'm a bad mother!"

"No, I would _never_ doubt your parenting skills!" Luke says sarcastically.

Lorelai just glares at him and takes another sip of her coffee. "So Lukey, how 'bout _your _parenting skills? Did you get in touch with the nephew you were responsible for yet?" She asks in a sugarcoated tone.

"Don't call me that, and, no I didn't." Luke sighs. "I already left two messages, and I spoke to Liz a couple of times, but she keeps saying he doesn't want to talk."

Lorelai sighs. "Man that kid really gets to me sometimes. I mean, why would he ever think that Rory would still want Dean after everything she did for him? How stupid can you be, really!"

"Well, I guess when you love someone as much as he did, you can't really think straight. And apparently that's not always for the better."

Lorelai stays silent for a while. "I guess…you really think he loves her that much?" She asks, looking him in the eyes.

"Yeah, you can just see it in the way he looks at her, acts around her…"

They stare at each other for a moment, before Lorelai snaps out of it. "I uh, I'd better go back to the Inn." She says.

Luke nods, and she's out.

* * *

Jess wanders down the street. It has been a week since he came back, and he still couldn't get reacquainted with how alive the city still was at night. He passes a payphone, as he'd done many times before, and again he considers calling Rory.  
Not that he knew what to say to her if she actually answers. He just wants to hear her voice. But most of all, he just wants some kind of proof that he was right about all of this. That he didn't leave her over nothing. During the past week he had gotten doubtful. Maybe he should have talked to her. 

He turns around, and looks at the payphone. Call her. He walks over, and picks up the horn. He throws in some quarters and starts dialing the digits. But he doesn't get further than the third number before he hangs up. He takes his change back and walks away, only to return again moments later. He takes a deep breath. He wouldn't say anything anyway, so what's the big deal…right? Right. He repeats his previous actions, only this time completing dialing the entire number. He waits as the phone rings.

Rory hears the phone rings, and gets up from the couch. Just as she answers the phone, the doorbell rings. "Hello, uhm, whoever you are, hold on just one second." She says and she walks over to the door with the phone in her hand.

On the other side Jess' heart had made a jump and started beating faster as soon as he'd heard her voice. Now he was waiting. At her side he heard her opening the door, and a voice greeting her. _"Oh, hey Dean."_ He heard her say. _"Can I come in?" _He asks. _"Sure, come in. Wait just a second I'm on the phone."_  
Jess just listened in disbelief. So it actually was true! He'd left just a week ago and she was back with Dean. He didn't know why he felt the pain inside all over again, he knew it was going to happen. But having it confirmed like this was painful just the same.

"Hello?" Rory asks on the other side, returning her attention to the caller, but all she hears is the dial tone. For some reason her thoughts go straight to Jess. That wasn't him…was it? She didn't know why she thought it was Jess. It could've been anyone. But still…No, she just had to forget about him. He was not coming back. She put the phone on it's place and went to the living room, where Dean was waiting on the couch. "Hi." She says forcing a smile.

"Hi." He says, standing up.

"What uh, what are you doing here?" She asks, crossing her arms uncomfortably.

"I just, you know, wanting to see how you were doing. I haven't exactly seen you this week, and as a _friend_," He said, emphasizing the word as to make sure that they were friends. "I was just concerned, after…you know."

Rory nods. "Yeah…I'm…I'm fine, you know. I'm just –" She sighs, and looks pleading at Dean. "I'm sorry, this is just a little, uncomfortable you know, to be talking about this with you."

Dean nods. "Hey, I understand…actually I know exactly how you feel, but I just wanted to…I don't know, do the friend thing and see how you were. But, I'll go." He says, walking towards the door.

"Oh, you don't have to go, I mean –"

"- no it's fine, I have to meet Lindsay later anyway…I guess I can be early." He smiles, and opens the door.

"Well, okay. See you later."

"Yeah, bye."

* * *

Jess deliberately slams the door shut when he enters the apartment. He couldn't believe this! He was right! He knew he was before, he was sure of it, but now it was really true. He sighs as he falls down on his bed, staring at the ceiling. He's glad Liz isn't home to give him the third degree about where he's been all day. He just couldn't handle that right now. 

After a week, Liz's mother act had starting to slip already. She'd been drinking more again, and the cheery tone that she pretended was real was starting to fade also. But he didn't care. He wasn't back to do the family bonding thing with his mother anyway. She could never come home and he wouldn't care. He just wanted to get away from Rory and _Dean_.  
Well, at least now it was official…He was not going back.

**

* * *

A/N: **So there it is. Hope you enjoyed it…sort of…okay, I hope I didn't anger/depress you even more after having to wait so long and you still don't get a Rory/Jess make up! But now that school is starting again next week, I'll still have nothing to do, but less time to be lazy, so I can probably update more frequently than last time, and I promise you it'll get better soon...and again, No this will not become a Narco, Ew! So sorry about, again!  
Also, please review! I love it when you do -bats with eyelashes-!


	11. Chapter 11

Hey everybody I updated **finally**! I really think I should stop promising to update soon since I don't seem to be able to keep my word for it. I'm sorry.  
I'm sorry if this new chapter seems a bit…blah, but I had a lack of inspiration…again.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Except, oh yes my friends, I now am the proud owner of the Gilmore Girls dvd special edition, of season 1, 2 AND 3 combined woohoo!

**Chapter Eleven**

Rory smiles contently as she traces circles on Jess' bare chest. She loves the feeling of lying next to him, all tangled up in the sheets. He kisses her hair.

"I'm so glad you came back." Rory says softly.

Jess smiles. "Yeah, me too."

She looks up to him, and gives him a soft kiss on the lips. "Never leave me again." She whispers.

"I won't. I love you so much."

"I love you too." She sits up, followed by Jess, and they kiss passionately.

"Rory?" He asks as they break apart. Rory nods. "Will you marry me?"

"Yes." Rory says with a grin, as if she'd been expecting the question. And they kiss again, lying back down on the bed.

Rory wakes up with a start. She feels the spot next to her on her bed. Empty. She sighs disappointed. It was just a dream, as it had been all the times before. She glances at the clock. Almost time to get up, so no point of trying to go back to sleep. She gets up and goes to the kitchen, where she starts making a pot of coffee.

"Hmm, do I smell coffee?" Lorelai asks as she enters the kitchen. She looks at Rory and sees the sad expression on her face. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." She answers, a little too quickly.

"You sure? Because you have the expression of a baby who's lollypop just got stolen. Tell me."

Rory sighs. "It's nothing, really. Just a bad dream, that's all."

Lorelai nods knowingly. "Uhuh, about Jess right?"

"No!" Rory says defensively. "Why would you automatically assume that?"

"Honey, it's okay to be upset about Jess, you know that right? You don't have to hide your feelings from me or something."

"I know." Rory says as she sits down at the table and pours her and her mother a cup of coffee. "It's just…I want to be over him. I don't want to feel this horrible all the time. And these dreams that I keep having aren't exactly helping that."

Lorelai sits down next to her daughter and gently strokes her hair. "Hey, it's been what, a week and a half since he left? It takes time to get over it. Ignoring it is probably only gonna make it worse." She takes a deep breath before continuing. "Maybe you should try calling him…getting stuff off your chest. Things are so left in the open right now."

"Mom, I told you, I don't want to do that! It's only gonna make me look weak and pathetic."

"Okay, ix-nay on the calling. How 'bout a letter? Or maybe a flying pie, like the ones in Garfield. Or a fruit basket with a note that says "You leave, me sad, please come back.""

Rory smiles weakly. "I'll think about it, okay?" She says, knowing she won't do it anyway.

* * *

"Hey mom, are we going to the grandparents tonight?" Rory calls while she emerges from her room.

"Oh, no, we're sick." Lorelai says, not looking up from reading _Cosmo_.

Rory sighs as she flops down next to her. "Mom, I'm mad at them too you know, but we sort of have to go, it was all part of the Chilton-deal-thing."

Lorelai puts away her magazine and focuses on Rory. "Rory, I really, _really_ cannot go to dinner tonight. What they pulled at Yale was inexcusable! Besides, I don't think they were completely surprised when I called to cancel. They knew they had it coming."

"You called?"

"Uhuh."

"Meaning you actually spoke to Grandma and told her personally we weren't coming to dinner." Rory asks sceptically.

"Not so much told her personally, as I left a message. But hey! At least I called! I could've also just said nothing and just not show up. Who knows, maybe I even lied to you just now about calling. Maybe I didn't call." Lorelai muses.

"You know what, I have homework to finish!" Rory dismisses Lorelai's comments, and goes back to her room. She picks up the book she has to read for school and lies down on her bed. She opens up at the first page, and right away sees the small notes written in the margins. Oh that's right, this is one of Jess' books. Rory feels the tears stinging behind her eyes, and blinks furiously to make them go away.

This wasn't fair, he was gone for almost two weeks now and she was still bursting out in tears every time something that reminded her of him came along. Which was often.  
She didn't even get to explain the situation to him because he'd left so abruptly. Suddenly her mother's words about writing him pop into her head. She knows she promised herself not to contact him, but she just had to set things straight, and let him do with the information what he wanted.

So she sits down at her desk, and takes her notebook and pen out.

* * *

"Rory, wanna go to Luke's?" Lorelai asks upon entering Rory's room, just as Rory finishes writing the address she asked Luke for earlier on the envelope. "Hey watcha doin'?"

Rory looks up, tears still in her eyes. "Oh, nothing."

Lorelai walks over to Rory. "Honey, what's wrong?" Her eye falls on the letter in Rory's hands. "Did you write him?"

Rory nods. "I don't know if I'm even going to send it, I just –" Rory pauses.

"You want him to come back, don't you?" Lorelai asks knowingly.

"No, I, yes, maybe I mean…" Rory sighs. "I love him…But just, the way he left…I'm just mad at him. I don't want to just forgive him and all's well in the world again! I mean, that is if he'll even come back. Ever."

"I know how you feel, hon, I really do. And yes, he will come back. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not in a week, but eventually. In the mean time, all you can do is try to move on."

Rory smiles wryly, and hugs her mother. "Thanks mom."

* * *

Jess sits on the couch, reading a book and The Clash blasting through the room. Liz enters, and right away turns off the music. "Hey Jess." She says, while taking off her coat.

Jess doesn't look up. "Finally decided to drop by?"

"Yeah sorry 'bout that, the party ran a little late, so I stayed at Frank's place coz I figured it was too late to go back." Frank, yet another boyfriend of Liz's.

"Whatever."

Liz goes through the mail. "You have mail." She says, holding up two envelopes.

"Huh." Jess still doesn't look up from his book.

"Don't you want to see it?"

"Nope."

Liz looks at the envelopes. "One is just commercial, and the other… From Stars Hallow."

Jess' head shoots up.

"Hm, maybe it's from Luke." Liz says. She turns the envelope over and looks at the returning address. "Rory Gilmore." Liz looks at Jess who quickly gets up. "Do you know who that is?"

Without answering Jess grabs the envelope from Liz's hands and goes over to his room, slamming the door behind him. He drops on his bed and looks at the address in Rory's neat handwriting.  
How did she get his address? She probably got it from Luke.  
He carefully opens the envelope and takes out a letter, right away noticing the tear stains on it. With shaking hands and a rapidly beating heart he starts reading.

_Dear Jess,_

_Over the past two weeks I've been wondering why you just left like that.  
You told me Liz wanted you to come back, so maybe you just really wanted to go back to New York. And maybe us fighting gave you an excuse to go. I don't know._

_What I can't understand is why you thought I still loved Dean.  
I don't.  
And I'm definitely not going to get back together with him like you probably think.  
You have to understand that Dean was in my life for 2 years, and I care about him, but that's all. I have no feelings for him whatsoever. After the Dance Marathon we decided to be friends. He's very happy with his new girlfriend Lindsay. _

_I guess me telling you this isn't going to make you come back, because I obviously don't mean as much to you as you do to me, if you were willing to give it up as easily as you did._

_You're an idiot for making stupid assumptions and leaving. Maybe you are really just that dumb to think that after all we went through together I still wanted Dean. I mean I slept with you. That meant a whole lot to me, and it was really special for me. You were my first.  
But maybe you just needed an excuse to get away from me…_

_At first, I wanted to go after you, to make you see it was a mistake to leave. But I decided not to. I didn't want to be the one to have to chase after you when I hadn't done anything wrong. Maybe I should have, or should have at least called. But then again, you could have done the same. I can only hope to hear from you again.  
I guess you could say this letter is also a way of chasing after you, but it's not. I just wanted to explain the way I feel to you, so that you at least know the truth, and do with it what you want.  
So whether I never see you again or not, I'm just going to have to let it go and get over you._

_I love you._

_Rory._

Jess runs a shaky hand through his hair, as he rereads the letter a few more times.  
He feels like a fucking asshole. How could he even have suspected something to be going on between Rory and Dean?  
She loved him. He repeated that to himself a few more times. She loved him, and he left to New York over one stupid fight.  
He read the letter again, looking closely at her shaky handwriting, and the dried up teardrops on the paper. She'd obviously been crying while writing this letter. He hated himself for doing this to Rory. He made her cry. It was all his fault. He was the one who made paranoid assumptions, he was the one who kept accusing her of still loving Dean, he was the one who ran off to New York, thinking she'd be better off without him.  
He stands up and starts pacing through the room. He had to do something about this. He had to fix it. He looks around, grabs his duffel bag and randomly starts packing the stuff he brought with him.

He enters the living room, and sees his mother asleep on the couch with a bottle of beer in her hand. Figures. After a week of trying to be motherly, Liz had fallen back into her old habits, started drinking again, and picking fights with him again. He didn't really care. He looks outside the window. It was dark already. How long had he been in there?  
He quickly writes a note saying he's going back to Stars Hallow, leaves it on the counter, and stalks out of the apartment.

* * *

Finally around midnight, the bus from New York stopped at Stars Hallow. Jess gets off, and walks towards the diner. He looks around, taking in the familiar streets. As he walks up to Luke's, he sees the lights upstairs are still on. He hesitates. Should he go to Luke first, or right away go to Rory? He glances at his watch. She might still be awake, it's only 12:13.  
He weighs his options, and decides to go to Luke first, thinking it's better to encounter Rory in the morning.  
He walks up to the door, and knocks, hoping Luke'll hear him upstairs. Much to his surprise he sees Luke emerging from the kitchen.

Luke walks to the door, but stops dead in his tracks upon seeing him, a shocked expression on his face. After a few seconds, he walks up to the door and unlocks it, letting Jess in. "What the hell are you doing here?" Luke demands right away.

"Hello to you too."

Luke sees the duffel bag Jess caries. "Ah jeez. Let me guess, ya want to come back?"

Jess shrugs.

"Does this by any chance have anything to do with Rory? Coz if it does, you'd better be sure about yourself before seeing her, because you hurt her a lot, Jess!"

Jess looks down. "I know. And I'm sure. I want to stay."

Luke glares at his nephew, trying to see if he's being honest, and then sighs. "Fine, but if you get Rory hurt I, along with pretty much the rest of the town, will make sure to kill you!"

Jess nods. "Good to know."

"Now go upstairs and unpack before I change my mind." Luke says dismissing Jess.  
Jess walks to the stairs, and Luke looks at his retreating back, shaking his head disbelief of his own stupidity. "I must be crazy." He mumbles to himself.

* * *

Jess looks around the apartment. Nothing has changed. All his stuff – except for what he took with him- is still in place. He thinks of his small, messy room in New York, with, apart from one poster on the concrete wall, nothing that represents him. Suddenly he realizes, this, Luke's apartment, Stars Hallow, is home. He sighs, and drops his bag on his tidied bed.

He lies down, and suddenly gets worried about what he'll do when he sees Rory. Even though he had the whole bus ride here to think about it, he hadn't really. Should he just greet her casually, or wait how she reacts upon seeing him…maybe he should've thought this through…Oh well, he still has all night to worry about this. He won't be able to sleep anyway.

* * *

The next morning, after getting the courage to finally leave the diner, Jess is on his way to Rory's. When he's about halfway there, he stops dead in his tracks, staring straight into the eyes of none other than Rory. She stares right back, in total shock.

Dozens of emotion surge through her body. Shock, anger, love, relief, fear. She doesn't know what to do, or what to say, or how to act. So she just walks on, pushing right passed him.

"Rory." He says, turning around and following her back towards the diner. "Rory!" He still gets no response. "Rory, would you just stop!"  
She just keeps on walking. "Rory I love you, just talk to me." He pleads.

Rory stops right away. She turns on her heel and stares at Jess. "What?" She asks carefully. "You love me?"

"Well yeah, why are you so shocked, I said it before." He says with a slight frown.

"Uh, no you didn't. You told me you're _in_ love _with_ me, which is completely different. Being in love is temporarily, but loving somebody is real." She rambles, still trying to process the fact that Jess is actually standing there.

"Oh…but then that's what I meant the other time."

"Then why'd you keep saying I still love Dean?"

"Because…Because I love you so much I'm afraid of losing you."

"What? That doesn't make any sense."

"It's just…when I was younger, everything –and everyone- I cared about, or got attached to, went away. And I could never really trust anyone, because when I did it was always thrown back into my face. So I just kept making these scenarios up in my head where you wanted to leave me or something. I'm just not used to being able to just trust someone, or love someone…"

Rory looks at him in shock. Not only does she now understand why he was so paranoid all the time, but now she also sees why he's the way he is. He's afraid of getting too close to people, so he just puts up and attitude.  
She shakes her head. She knew she wanted to give in, and kiss him, and love him, but she didn't want to give in this easily.

He takes a step closer. "Just…give me another chance."

Rory takes a step back to remain in the same distance apart. "No. No, it's too late."

Jess frowns. "What do you mean? Why?"

"If it took a letter from me for you to come back, it's – No."

"But I didn't know."

"Yeah well you should've known! You should've trusted me enough to know I wasn't lying to you!" And with that Rory turns around and stalks off, not heading towards Luke's like she was going to but going straight on to Lane's.  
Jess sighs. He'd hoped she'd forgive him. But then what could he have expected, he left without a word or a good reason to…

* * *

"Hey Rory!" Lane greets Rory when she opens the door of her room. They go into the room and sit down on the bed. "You don't look so good, what's wrong?" Lane says upon seeing Rory's distressed face.

Rory frowns. "Jess is back."

"What?" Lane exclaims, and slaps her hand on her mouth when she hears how loud she was. "Quick, to the closet!" She says dramatically, and they sit down into the closet, where Lane puts on some music and turns on her disco lamps. "Okay, again I say, what? Jess is back?" Rory nods. "What did he say? What did _you_ say?" Lane asks eagerly.

"Well first he said he loved me, and he explained why he left…sort of…and then he asked for a second chance and I said no."

Lane makes big eyes at her best friend. "You said no? As in, no, nu-uh, not a chance, nada, nope, nix? I thought you wanted Jess back!"

"Well I did – I do! But what he did was so stupid, and he hurt me really bad, and I…" She trails off.

"You don't want to be that girl that forgives the guy they love whenever they say "Sorry, won't happen again" only to be hurt again. Right?" Lane finishes for Rory.

"Right."

"But I don't think…"

"What?"

"I just think he really is sorry. I mean, I think he was just hurt in thinking you still loved Dean."

"So you're saying I should forgive him."

"I'm saying you should hear him out. I mean, you love him don't you?"

"Yes."

"Well then, away with you! Talk to him."

Rory takes a deep breath. "You're right I guess. Yeah, you _are_ right. I should talk to him, yeah, totally…thanks." She hugs Lane, and steps out of the closet.

**

* * *

A/N: Okay, I'm stopping here, mostly because my inspiration and ideas are running low (for now). So hope you enjoyed it and don't think it was a completely sucky chapter. I've been sorta out of it. Wasn't really into ma grooooove…or whatever…So yeah, please review, we all know I love them reviews!**


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